wanna be a snow bird now

[discostew]

I have decided to be a damn snow. Any of you guys ever live in a big 5th wheel rv for extended time. I figure 3 months out of the year at least. I figure you guys know about every damn thing. What do you know about Rv's?

I'm looking at Keystone Fusion toy haulers from about 2012 0r 2013.

 

[Devildog01]

Stewart, have you been consuming alcoholic beverages again?

 

[fishEH]

This 50* weather got you bummed, Stew? Sitting outside for 2 soccer games with gale force winds was just awesome today, let me tell ya.

 

[az_max]

50? it's still near 100f here!

 

[discostew]

Stewart, have you been consuming alcoholic beverages again?

Yep

 

[discostew]

I have a video of my kid doing an experiment back in 09 when it was -28 F. He was trying to blow a soap bubble and have it freeze then crack when it landed in the snow. It didn't work cause the water would start to freeze before it ever made a bubble.

 

[Axel]

I have decided to be a damn snow. Any of you guys ever live in a big 5th wheel rv for extended time. I figure 3 months out of the year at least. I figure you guys know about every damn thing. What do you know about Rv's?

I'm looking at Keystone Fusion toy haulers from about 2012 0r 2013.

I've had a few of them. The last one was a 27 foot Fleetwood travel trailer with a slideout living room. Used them all as a summer cabin on a campsite in Upstate NY near Woodstock. The Fleetwood got taken by a flood 5 years ago or so, and we didn't get another one after that.

You can absolutely live in an RV for an extended period of time, but there is logistics to consider. Think fresh water supply, power, sewer discharge, laundry and amenities like cable/internet. This isn't as much of an issue if you stay in an RV park with all the hookups, but is something you have to think about if you are going to dry camp.

Even if you stay in an RV park with all the hookups, you will still be cleaning your sewer tank on a regular basis, if you don't you will find yourself in a world of stink very quick.

Don't know how many people you will have living in your RV, but when I was doing it with 3 people, we would usually have to dump the grey water tank every other day (Showers, washing hands, washing dishes etc) and dump the sewer tank every 2-3 days. Don't recall how big the tanks were, I think 25 gallons each.


If you stay in the RV for more than a week, you also have to start thinking about laundry. Some RV's come with washers and dryers, but then the water has to go somewhere. If you are at an RV site with sewer hookups on each site, this isn't as much of an issue - the place we kept ours didn't have that - because then you can leave the grey water valve open all the time. You do not want to do that with the sewer valve though, you want the sewer tank to fill up an let the chemicals do it's magic before you dump.

Most RV's - maybe with the exception of Airstream - are also built like shit, so after a couple of years use you will start having little leaks here and there, especially if you have slideouts and leave them extended for long periods of time. Slideouts are worth the hassle though, they give you a lot of extra room inside the RV.

 

[stu454]

If you leave the slide out for extended periods you'll want to support it with some sort of brace.

 

[discostew]

Axel you sound like you do have some experience with this. I've been investigating this for a little while. It's amazing the stuff you need to know. I did learn about keeping water in the black tank when hooked up. I also learned that most are built like shit and even the good ones. I learned you need to keep the water from leaking in and the fact that it will leak water if it's not leaking now.

I want to go to warmer weather in the winter starting in a couple yrs but want to buy one in about 1 yr. I'm older than a lot of you guys and starting to retire a little at a time. Now I work 4 eight hr days with a 3 day weekend every week. I don't think I ever want to retire fully. But it has begun.

 

[discostew]

I'd you leave the slide out for extended periods you'll want to support it with some sort of brace.

Ya I'm learning that some slides are better than others and a couple manufacturers can't seem to get them right yet. One company is putting a whole wall slide in a 5th wheel. Now that's gotta be a heavy slide,looks cool as hell but just wonder if it's engineered right.

 

[az_max]

Ya I'm learning that some slides are better than others and a couple manufacturers can't seem to get them right yet. One company is putting a whole wall slide in a 5th wheel. Now that's gotta be a heavy slide,looks cool as hell but just wonder if it's engineered right.

This would be the ultimate slide-out. I think the slide is 35ft long. the trailer is 48ft.

 

[discostew]

Stuffs crazy. That's the general drift of that full wall slide.

 

[LRflip]

pussy.

 

[LRflip]

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/

 

[discostew]

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/

Converted busses are cool. I like the old transit bluebirds.

 

[Axel]

Ya I'm learning that some slides are better than others and a couple manufacturers can't seem to get them right yet. One company is putting a whole wall slide in a 5th wheel. Now that's gotta be a heavy slide,looks cool as hell but just wonder if it's engineered right.

It's more to it than that. Slideouts are cool, I like them. They give you a lot of extra room inside.

There are also differing views on whether or not to put supports under them. I chose not to, for the simple reason that the ground my trailer was sitting on was very sandy. If I had added supports, the trailer and slideout would have settled at different rates throughout the season, which would have caused problems.

If you are in a park where the RV sits on a concrete slab, supports may make more sense. With properly designed slideouts though, I'd say you really don't need them. The techs at the RV place I used were of the same opinion, they felt support braces do more harm than good.

If you are considering getting into the RV lifestyle, my best advice to you (if you haven't done it already) is to rent one and go on a trip for a week or two to see if you like it before making the big investment. Also watch the Robin Williams movie RV for some pointers on what not to do with an RV....

If you do decide to get an RV, make sure you get a good surge protector and voltage regulator to run your power to the RV through. Campsite power is notoriously unreliable with constant noise and low voltage when there are a lot of draw on the system. A surge protector and voltage regulator is cheap insurance for your RV's electric components and whatever else you choose to plug in.

 

[discostew]

Thanks axel . I knew somebody around here would know about this. I do plan to take a trip in March. Started lining it all up. I have a spot reserved in Cherry Hill park inside the Washington DC beltway. Going to stay there a week while my kids are on spring break this year. Hopefully the cherry blossoms are in bloom. The units I have found to rent are class c but I'm hoping I can rent something more like what I wan't to buy.( 5th wheel).

I think that if I'm spending time south and west during the winter months, I can find and bring back some rust free cars and Discos to fix up and flip.If I had a good hauler truck I could bring some back on a different trailer. Kind of something I plan to do in my old age. I wan't to retire but I don't want to sit down and do nothing.

I've been told about the surge protection also. Something about park electrical systems will spike or dip when people are hooking up or disconnecting. Just an amazing amount of ways to fuck this stuff up. Lots to learn.

 

[Axel]

Yes, you need surge protection for when people hook up, their A/C units go on and off etc. Something like this:

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/portable-surge-guard-protectors-30-amp/73993

This is a surge protector for a 30 amp circuit which is the most common. Some larger RV's have a 50 amp hookup, but I haven't seen it that often.

A voltage regulator like this one is even more important, though:
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/30-amp-3-600-watt/72454

The reason for this, is that when you are in an RV park with a lot of other campers and everyone start running their equipment, the voltage in the park will drop. Low voltage is the biggest enemy of your electrical equipment. The reason for this is Ohm's first and second law of electricity (I knew those electrical engineering classes in college would come in handy....) - I'm not going to get into a lengthy theoretical explanation, all you need to know is that in an RV Park you are sharing the grid with a bunch of other people, and whenever something gets plugged in and turned on, the voltage drops a little. When the voltage drops, more current will run through your equipment. More current = more heat, which is bad, bad, bad.

The voltage regulators have some spike protection built in, but because I studied electrical engineering and am anal about these things, I always ran a dedicated surge protector in front of the voltage regulator as extra protection. I also always kept one of these plugged in inside the RV so I could see what the voltage was:

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/ac-voltage-meter/69127

Most people don't think of the electrical system in their RV because they view it as a black art, but if you have dirty power coming into your RV you can easily burn out your A/C unit or fridge, and those things are damn expensive...

RV'ing can be a lot of fun, though. In some ways it's like wheeeling. As long as you understand how the equipment work, you can deal with almost anything if you plan ahead a little.

 

[discostew]

I think it's pretty cool stuff. Still trying to figure it all out but getting closer. I'm hoping that in a couple years some of the 2014 model year stuff comes down into my price range. I'm finding out some of the stuff you can buy now for under 20 grand wouldn't be great for 3 month stays. I think I want a higher end 5th wheel with hydraulic landing gear and slides. A diesel generator so I can pull fuel out of a transfer tank in the bed of the truck. Solar panels and a good bank of batteries. Frameless automotive style glass was getting used by 2014 and looks better to me than the old style rv windows. But what I just described would run 45 grand right now.

 

[Axel]

Are you going to stay in an RV park/campsite, or dry camp? If you are staying in a park, you won't have that much need for a generator. I never used one in 30 years.

If you do want a generator, your first priority should be the noise level. Honda makes some good silent ones.