Barbaraok

Remember to make sure your tow bars are "all terrain" or something to that effect, makes it make easier to hookup where you don't have a lot of room to get perfectly straight, or unhook if you find you need to because of a narrow, winding road.

We lived in Michigan for 13 years. Every year, the first snow would see wrecks all over as they all acted like they had never driven on snow/ice before. Slow and steady, keep foot OF the brake, had to be relearned every year. People in Seattle usually don't see enough snow to bother learning how to drive in it. One person may be the designated driver for going skiing, but otherwise it is 45° and raining for much of the winter. But when it does freeze, the hills Seattle is built on turn into slides. I loved living in Ft. Collins, CO where you never worried about driving, traction in powdered snow is fine, but lack of humanity meant lousy snowballs. But little dirt/sand at heavily traveled intersections/railroad crossings and wait a day for the snow to sublimate into the air and the roads were clear. We were in the Phoenix area when temperatures were into the mid 20s for a couple of morning. Local weatherman was asked why there was no frost on cars - he had to explain that unlike most of the country, there wasn't enough moisture in the air for frost to form. I do love being in the desert in the winter and relying on solar snow removal after all of the years in Ohio and Michigan (18 total) with snow up to our knees and cat liter and window scrapers as fixtures in the car.

March, I think, 1978, it iced all over the south with a little snow. DFW was the only airport open, but no one could get to or out of the airport, but they could land/take off because DFW had bought deicing equipment! We were in Carrollton then, and daughter was a toddler. Had a slight slope to the driveway, so Dave cut a big box into a slide. 3 days of "Slide daddy, slide" as we waited for them to open the roads. He was so glad to get back to work and rest up. Texans don't necessarily believe that tread is necessary on tires, and they tend to believe they can drive 70 mph on ice. That fact that they consistently prove they can't doesn't seem to deter them.

So, if I understand correctly, this is to play with for the next two years, for weekend, 1-2 week trips, to get a feel for RVing, to learns the ins and outs of how systems are suppose to function and what to do when they don't, and that you will be trading this in on a full-timing rig? If so, stick with something the F-150 can handle, remind yourselves it is for short term only and learn to think "can this do more than one thing around the RV". Pack minimally, get the rig weighed several times and see how close you come to limits as you pack, keep lists of things that work and don't work. We got a Class C just for that purpose before we went full timing and bought the DP. Best thing we ever did. And you will know that full timing is really for you when you leave a camp ground and have to really fight not to turn the other direction from home and just "head out there"!😉

As a chemistry major/teacher when I went to grad school in Chem Eng I was dismayed by the use of Imperial system - and the main reason, the oil industry who resisted change. Every other industry was on board. It's one reason one of our probes crashed on Mars - someone forgot to change Imperical into Metric - though why anyone at NASA was working in something other than metric is beyond me. And most people in this country are comfortable with meds, which are in ml and grams, will buying liters of liquor, kilos for illicit drugs, etc. Need just to say, "Next January 1st, all metric, PERIOD!"

Try the first of the week, they are opening more drive up vaccination sites in addition to Cardinal Stadium for February. They are also lowering age to 65, so 700,000 seniors in the valley will be looking for sites. Good luck, I started at 6:00 am when they opened the websites for our reservations. Have you looked at Pima County?

I'm trying to figure out why the vitriol about moving to alternative energy sources for vehicles. A great number of us won't be here in 15 or 20 years, but we should realize by now that change comes rapidly. We had Nokia cell phones when we started full timing in 2006 and you could play a game on them. Then flip-phones and the ability to take a picture if we had forgotten to bring the camera. And gigabyte of data usage was for big companies, not full-time RVers. Then came the iPod followed by the iPhone. Does anyone still travel will a container of CDs to listen to going down the highway? I haven't bothered to update the maps for our GPS unit for the motorhome, will just use the iPhone plus a Trucker's Atlas. Change will come, we can't stop it, and it is time to look at how we can adapt to that change as it comes.

Joel, the discussion is, I though, about HYBRIDs, not EVs. I am sure that within a few years charging states will appear all over like they do on the West Coast, but for now I prefer a hybrid so that we can go explore and not have to worry about finding a charging station. To me it is the best of both worlds. And face it, the Gen Zers are going to affect what types of vehicles start rolling off the production lines, not old RVers like us.😎

This is why they are such great cars for towing behind MHs for full timers. Think about what you do once parked at the next destination. You go out and explore, visit families, etc., Lots of short trips, often in small towns, or big cities, with stop and go driving. No 200+ mile jaunts, but rather 10 miles over city streets to Cousin Joe's for a family cookout. Or driving the 5 miles Sto the parking lot at the museum you came to see, or travel through the National Park, pulling off at all of the 'vista' areas to take in views.

I watched ours when we did our long jaunt to see the kids a year ago, it often ran on the battery and did a lot of both running - the IC just helping. If you go above 75, then the IC engine usually takes over, but if you stay under, the computer switches back and forth as needed. And out in the west, it is up and down all the town, engine kicks on about 1/2 way up any climb, but once at the top, she's recharging the big battery all the way down and about half way into the next climb. All I can tell you is that we were getting 42 mpg out on the highway, and I was really surprised. And once at our destination, it costs next to nothing for short trips which is why it is such a great car to pull 4-down behind the motorhome.

But even in the car we cruise at 65. And after all the years driving MH for anything over 100 miles, it just feels comfortable. agree. Complaint is always that they can go very far.

Are you staying on site at WDW? The RV Park is great and we love staying there. Yes, pricey, but there is so much to do and easy to get around to all the different areas using the Disney Transportation System.

You said most people do x, and I said, we don't, we do y. Not projecting on to others, just saying we are different. And a hybrid would work just fine for you, but you are determined to believe it won't. One of the best parts is that, at least for the Fords, they can use BOTH systems, which extends the distance you can go, the computer making adjustments as needed. We did a 3000 mile round trip (750 miles each day), some city most highway driving and mpg during that time frame was 43 mpg. Was neat to be doing 65 mph going down the highway and no engine sound at all because we are on the big battery. Get near a city, traffic picks up, more braking, more energy going back into the battery stored for when we are another long stretch to lengthen our trip.

We had our last car, before the hybrid, for 14 years. Before that, usually 8-10 years or more.

We love ours. Ford C-Max Hybrid, which they discontinued and have no idea why because it is incredibly dependable. Tow it 4-down behind the motorhome. We get over 50 mph, in city the engine seldom comes on, especially in traffic with a lot of braking going on. Trick is to learn how to coast to the next light to take advantage of the braking charging the big battery. Fill once a month, 10 gallons or less. During this year with not being able to travel and having to isolate, only getting fuel every 60 days or so.

Higher charging rates are coming. Rick, change is coming whether you like it or not. Your saying the same things people were saying 100 years ago, 200 years ago, since time began. Change use to take decades, now 6 months might be a long time. 😎

Can't be completely recycled YET! Most of the blade components can, and companies are looking at ways to crush and create new products - - look at the deck of your home to be made of recycled fiberglass in a few years. Reduce carbon emissions and leave the petroleum to be used for pharmaceuticals, etc. Oil is finite, wind goes on until the radioactive reactions in the earth's core cease and we stop rotating, or the sun goes as a supernova. No - you can't do long trips (500-600 miles) without charging stations. Haven't been driving out west lately have you. Lots of truck stops now have them. Wineries all along the west coast are putting them in at their tasting rooms. Come in, plug in, go in and do some wine tasting, buy a couple of bottles, and move on. Some grocery stores now have charging stations. Weather is not determined by winds at 100'. Jet streams move the air around that affected the 'weather'. Mountain ranges affect the weather, look at the any state with a mountain range through the middle.

Very good idea. Trust us, you won't regret going that way.

That says that while the USPS got the notice that it would be in the shipment picked up, it was never scanned AT the receiving center. Have you called Escapees and asked them to see if they can shake things up.

We purchased a car out of state. Registered it with no inspection because we were out of state. You just agree to get it inspected whenever you are in the state. We've know people who have bought vehicles, registered, renewed, then sold vehicle and bought a new vehicle without every being in Texas.

Having been out since 2006, please do yourself a favor and find a car to tow 4 down. If you can go with a 2 wheel dolly, that would be easier to find a space for (most have them under the rear while parked) than a trailer. But again, 4 down towing is so much easier. We can hook/unhook in less than 5 minutes and while do have to bend down, never have had to get on knees. Get an all-terrain unit and towing 4 down is a piece of cake.

Awesome!

I believe that the hitches are regular Class Cs are rated 5K AT THE MOST. Are you saying you have an 8K or 10K hitch? Or is this a Super C you're talking about?

We got a reservation for Jan 29th here in Maricopa County. Took me 2 hours on line this morning to get it. The 29th was the last day they currently had open. So January is all filed unless some new sites open up. So we will spend the next couple of weeks rechecking every day to see if they open up the pharmacies around Mesa because while they said they did, the websites at the pharmacies said no appointments through April!

Check the state public health department where you are. We’re in Arizona and anyone here can sign up. We just got our reservations for the 29th of January.