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Forum
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RE: Just Joining The RV Life
Thank you all for your comments. We have been camping before and my husband is a former truck driver and worked as a diesel mechanic for local CAT dealer for 16 years, so that is taken care of. We also lived in the camper for 6 months while they were finishing our new house. BUT that being said we always knew we were coming back home. This time it won't be a week or two and the RV is now our home. We do plan on taking our time and my husband says fishing every where we go. Mrs. veebyes I am a quilter also and am very fortunate to have
turn the 2nd bedroom into my sewing room in the camper. I have the new Altair Machine. Maybe we will run into you somewhere on our journey and can talk sewing. Do you have the handy Quilter travel guide? It list ever fabric or craft store in the U.S. I was just looking for information on things you all have realized you didn't have that you needed, or found ways to use things you had for different purposes.
As soon as the DW gets wind of where we are going she is online searching for quilt shops. Can't count how many shops in how many places we have been. Done the major ones, Paducah, Ashville show etc. multiple times. Some of the best shops have been found in the most unexpected places.
Your DH is going to need all of the 'fix it' skills that he has and you will need to be right there getting hands dirty beside him. If you are not already familiar with what is inside a toolbox you will be.
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Veebyes
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09/17/23 09:40am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Just Joining The RV Life
Ditto on buying a load of stuff because somebody says so.
We are not fulltime. We are six months a year on the road RVers. 25 years later, we are still buying stuff. Don't buy cheap. Buy good stuff that is going to last. Much cheaper in the long run. Kitchen tools, tools needed to fix things, a grill, no matter what. Buy quality and buy it once.
The most important thing will be a notepad and pencil to write down stuff as you find that you need it.
Like the idea of a coastal hugging trip. Did that once. Came out of New Orleans headed west and basically turned left at every road that was not a dead end till Galveston.
The temptation is to rush off and go everywhere in a hurry. Don't do it. Find things that interest you. We are currently at a bluegrass festival. 7 days of it. Something never done before the RV. The DW is a quilter. Can't count how many quilt shops she has been in across the country.
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Veebyes
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09/16/23 10:13am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: ? condition of highways from Montana thru Canada to Alaska?
You will find sections of thumpa thumpa everywhere. Generally we found the Canadian roads better than the US roads. Then there are the potholes. Big nasty tire killing spring breaking potholes. You are not driving drunk. You are trying to avoid the potholes and frost heaves.
It is the nature of northern roads and northern roads. Slow down. Enjoy the smooth sections. Some are as smooth as a baby's bottom.
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Veebyes
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09/15/23 09:53am |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: Teton Pass
We have done many western passes with our rather heavy 5er. Teton pass we drove up from Jackson to the top, just truck, and then back down to Jackson.
Of course no problem with just the truck but would definitely have a pucker factor to it if having a heavy trailer behind. It would be a very low gear and cycling of brakes affair.
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Veebyes
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09/13/23 10:00am |
Roads and Routes
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RE: mixing batteriy sizes
Another option for you to consider is to create two ‘banks’ of battery power by running the newer battery by itself and the other 2 (together) as a second battery.
This can be done via a cheap marine battery switch (bat. 1, bat. 2, both, off) or by just swapping cables.
With one, or two, battery switches you can combine or isolate batteries any way you wish.
Did that with a boat. I had a total of five group 31 gel cell batteries arranged in three banks that were switchable. Two banks of two batteries in parallel and a single, all switchable for a single or combo that I pleased.
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Veebyes
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09/13/23 09:50am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Battery Size (replacing)
There are plenty of good reasons to go to an AGM. The double to triple the service life is only one of them. My first AGM gave me nine years.
In storage the AGM loses very little. My AGM sits, disconnected and untended, November to April and retains enough power to operate landing legs upon reconnection.
Zero maintenance other than annual terminals cleaning.
Yes they cost more. Much more. Given what they are over the 100 plus year old technology of the wet cell the AGM is worth it.
There's a reason why they are used in aviation and marine applications.
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Veebyes
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08/25/23 10:31pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Thinking about going to 2024 Calgary Stampede
Did the Calgary Stampede some years ago. Have done many other rodeos before and since. Bottom line, IMO Calgary is alot of hype and alot of expense for what it is.
There are plenty other rodeos, same cowboys, same bulls, much smaller crowds for far less money.
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Veebyes
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08/20/23 11:59am |
RV Parks, Campgrounds and Attractions
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RE: RV Axle Alignment Shop in Buffalo NY area
If anything is out of alignment tire wear will tell the story. There are other methods without getting your bank account raided.
Measure the distance between the tires. Should be very very close to the same.
Take a board across both tires at axle height. It should be touching each sidewall front and back.
Loop a line around the kingpin and take it to center under each U bolt. Should be the same left and right.
You Tube is your friend. Look up instructions for installing the Correct Track system.
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Veebyes
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08/20/23 12:15am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Battery Size (replacing)
Cram as many amps of battery bank in the space provided as possible.
That means doing some measurement of battery case size & seeing what will fit.
Typical case sizes are group 24, group 27, group 31, 4D and 8D. Each is larger than the next. An 8D is what you would see for starting large machines, or the marine version deep cycle onboard boast as 'house' batteries.
As pointed out a single group 24 is basically a waste of time. Good enough for a very small 'teardrop' sized trailer maybe.
Since the OP isn't boondocking, just get the cheapest battery. If it's $4 to upgrade to group 27,OK but don't spend a lot of money on something you won't utilize.
The truck umbilical cord will handle the fridge and other power draws while running down the road. The battery really only needs to run the trailer brakes in the event of an emergency where the trailer becomes disconnected from the truck or to run the jack to disconnect before plugging into shore power once at a campsite.
PS: 8D batteries are almost never used as house batteries in boats or RVs. They are simply too big and awkward for normal humans to move. If you want a big house bank and don't want to go with lithium, the standard is 6v golf cart batteries. But again, this is all massive overkill for the OP who isn't boondocking.
If all the OP has is what is needed to be plugged in all the time, no, he will not be doing any dry camping if the need or desire is ever to do so.
As far as 4D and 8D batteries go, I currently use a 4D AGM in the 5er.
Used to have a boat, single diesel engine, that had a single 8D for starting and house use, though it was not an overnighting boat. A friend had a 65' motor yacht that had six 8D AGM battery bank.
The beauty of the 4D and 8D is that you don't have all of those connections, potential problems, to maintain.
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Veebyes
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08/20/23 12:04am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Battery Size (replacing)
Cram as many amps of battery bank in the space provided as possible.
That means doing some measurement of battery case size & seeing what will fit.
Typical case sizes are group 24, group 27, group 31, 4D and 8D. Each is larger than the next. An 8D is what you would see for starting large machines, or the marine version deep cycle onboard boast as 'house' batteries.
As pointed out a single group 24 is basically a waste of time. Good enough for a very small 'teardrop' sized trailer maybe.
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Veebyes
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08/17/23 07:46pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Factory Tours
Did the Mobile Suite factory tour in 2008. Not a MS owner or looking to buy one. Very new to RVing at the time. Wanted to have an idea of how they are put together.
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Veebyes
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08/17/23 07:35pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Rank your RV issues
Fifteen years, well over two thousand nights, two hundred fifty thousand truck miles, estimated well over 150,000 trailer miles, seldom more than three nights one spot. Yeah, we have had our share of problems.
Slide problems with two of the three, fridge problems, A/C problems, ATS relaced, charger replaced, inverter replaced, two tire blowouts, landing jack problems, broken springs, windows replaced twice, stove replaced, roof recoated. It goes on and on.
The good news is that with almost everything except fridge and A/C replacement we did the labour ourselves.
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Veebyes
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08/17/23 07:31pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Driving south and bypass Richmond VA
Never had a problem getting around Richmond. Usually use the bypass around the east side.
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Veebyes
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08/08/23 01:34pm |
Roads and Routes
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RE: Help with Refrigerator Decision
I was thinking about going the domestic fridge route also. The big issue was finding one to fit without major carpentry surgery to make it look good.
The bottom line came out that replacing the refrigeration unit of my ten year old Dometic four door was less than a new seventeen cu ft plus carpentry. Another consideration is how much dry camping does one intend to do? We do a fair amount of dry camping and for that, using a domestic fridge, one needs to be running a generator frequently or having a massive battery bank and pure sine wave inverter. Not very practical.
If you are a FHU camper then the domestic fridge will work just fine, provided it fits.
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Veebyes
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08/06/23 11:50pm |
General RVing Issues
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Top of the World and Dawson City to Carmacks highways.
If you are planning to use these roads either northbound or southbound you might want to reconsider.
The TOW from Chicken to the last five miles or so to the border are terrible.
Also between an hour or so SB out of Dawson City to Pelly Crossing has some long stretches of construction, gravel, washboard and then whopping huge potholes to Stewart Crossing.
The worst sections of road for the entire trip which also included the Denali Highway, also not very good, & the Robert Campbell Highway, which was 300 miles of mostly gravel and excellent.
This was the fifth time doing the Dawson, TOW route so I do have previous experience to compare to.
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Veebyes
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08/06/23 07:45pm |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: Dead...
My goals have changed. My first rv was a used class c (circa 1987) in 2000 and I was 52. It came with 60 watts of solar that cost $1700.00. I used it for 9 years and drove it 140,000 miles.
In 2009 I moved to a newer (2005) class C and spent 1700 on 256 watts of solar. I've done many upgrades. I've driven it 160,000 miles
Now I'm 75. What made sense at 52 doesn't at 75. There won't be upgrades unless something fails.
Exactly. So many variables. Everyone thinks that whatever they have is the cat's meow. It is not. It is what they have and hopefully it is what suits them best & not simply following the crowd.
Hopefully, I have at least four years left in my AGM. I have had a good run with my Alpenlite since 2007. Well over 2500 nights on the road, 5 trips to Alaska, 2 to Newfoundland, 260,000 miles on the truck. Likewise at my age I can't see going too many more years. The body complains now after crawling around underneath the trailer for some reason or another. I am not a credit card camper.
Someone will get a nice 5er with life in it cheap, though it will probably need a new battery. They can decide what route that they go to suit them best.
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Veebyes
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07/29/23 03:18pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Dead...
Cost much more than wet cells but much less than lithium.
This isn't true anymore and hasn't been for a long time. sure there are some outliers like battle born and such that are way over priced still, but if you look at your battery for example it's what 215AH, so that is about 110AH usable for the longest life. a single 300.00US LFP will replace that and do the same job for 20 years. when you work out the usable capacity over the life span LFP are actually very cheep.
my 5th wheel has four 6v batteries which cost 1200 bucks (cdn) for me to do a couple years ago. This gives me 460AH total but 230 Usable, for the same price I could have three of those batteries (Canadian price is around 400) and have more usable power that would probably outlast three sets of GC2's easily. instead I am building three of my own that will cost me about 2000.00 cdn , but give me 840 usable AH.
Steve
There are loads of variables to consider when choosing a battery bank.
If you are a weekend warrior, always using a FHU site, it makes little sense to spend the money on a battery bank system best suited for dry camping.
If you have an old rig, mine was built 2007 and has had more than 2500 nights on the road, it makes little sense to spend the money on a battery bank that will last 20 years. The trailer will be gone long before that, unless it goes to a seasonal CG for it's retirement years, in which case it won't need lithium batteries.
If my rig was ten years younger and my plans were to keep it at least another ten years doing my current travel habits, which include a fair amount of dry camping, I'd be giving lithiums a serious consideration.
I don't question that lithiums are the best right now. But best for who and in what application?
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Veebyes
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07/28/23 01:10pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Need advice if safe for my pickup to pull a heavy 5th wheel
It is always reassuring going down the road knowing that your truck is WELL within it's limits.
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Veebyes
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07/28/23 12:51pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: 2024 Trip Planning
The Calgary Stampede is a big deal for sure but IMO overrated. Been there. Also been to a whole bunch of other rodeos, much smaller, with the same cowboys, same bulls, much better viewing & at far less cost, plus much more convenient to attend. Get online for rodeo schedules
On the Canadian plus side, the drive from Banff to Jasper is absolutely stunning. Sorry, the Canadian Rockies put the Colorado Rockies to shame. Get off the main highway as well. Glacier Waterton is a do both sides of the border. Again, loads of info online.
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Veebyes
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07/25/23 10:39pm |
RV Parks, Campgrounds and Attractions
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RE: Quadrants, rather than one big cross country trip?
Based on MD Eastern Shore Chesapeake Bay, maybe a half hour from the Atlantic. Almost 250,000 miles put on the truck since 2007.
Similar to your 'quadrant' idea, we have done many trips with a theme or particular area to cover. Some keep drawing us back, e.g. currently on our fifth trip to Alaska. Departed MD end of April. Return MD mid Oct. Very flexible itinerary.
Allow time for delays due to weather. It is going to happen. Allow time for mechanical problems. They will happen. The more that you are able to go with the flow, the better.
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Veebyes
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07/25/23 10:21pm |
RV Parks, Campgrounds and Attractions
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