Kirk W

It would appear that nobody has had any problems. I thought that I'd replay even though I have never been domiciled in FL, just to welcome you to the Escapee forums and make sure that you know your post is being read. Glad to have you with us!

I just copied this from the latest Escapees News. Some of you may want to check this out.

The ventilation of the cooling unit is by convection flow, so it enters the bottom, is slowly heated by the cooling process of the refrigerator, then exits out the top. The fan you have is there to increase air flow if the interior temperature gets too high to avoid a loss of cooling. In very cold weather the problem becomes one of too much heat removal so that the heat source (either propane or electric) is not able to cause the liquid to boil and change to a gas. I strongly suggest that you take some time to visit this link on how absorption refrigerators work, as i think it will help you understand. In very cold weather, the air entering through these vents is too much due to the ambient temperature, which in my experience could occur most any time that temperatures fall below 20° and stay that way for more than a few hours and/or if it is very windy. I have seen it cool with temperatures down into the teens, but had ours fail to cool when it was in the low 20's with a hard wind blowing on the back of the refrigerator. What I used to do is to cover 1 or 2 of the vent slots with tape when very cold weather was predicted. In most cases that is enough as it keeps the temperatures inside at a point that it will operate properly. When staying in the RV in the high Rocky Mountains to go hunting, we used to cover the two bottom vent openings with a piece of fiberglass insulation that we made up for that purpose before leaving to go up there. I have seen a incandescent light also used in the back, but have not needed it myself.

Many of us have camped in tents, a few still do so at times, but since this is an RV group, most of those who join while only tent camping do so because they are planning to buy an RV and are looking for information and advice.

I know several and some are quite proud of that fact. But all of them are also more than 80 years of age. I also know several people who use a computer mostly for email and very little more and some of them are still in the 70's. On the other hand, Until a few months ago I was working with the youth in rural, east Texas and I was quite surprised to discover that a very significant number of them do not have internet access in their homes nor is there a computer there. In Dallas area, one of the bigger challenges for school during the COVID-19 has been a lack of computers & internet for lower income families with students. I found both to be quite surprising.

Welcome to the Escapee forums! While many of us here have been traveling by RV for many years, very few of us have done so in Europe. As for mechanical tools to carry, I would fist as myself how much mechanical repair I have the skills to do and will I be in places where qualified mechanics are difficult to find? Remember that tools are quite heavy and your truck has weight limits to be concerned with. If you overload the truck it will be difficult and uncomfortable to drive and the excess weight will impact the reliability of the truck since it is only designed to carry a specified amount of weight. Excessive weight will also increase tire wear.

Absorption refrigerators will stop cooling if the ambient temperature inside of the cooling unit falls so low that the heat source can not cause the refrigerant in the boiler to boil off as a gas. I have found that mine usually didn't experience problems until it got down around 20° and if there were problems you can help by covering about half of the air entry grill to keep the temperature warmer. In very cold I also placed a 60 watt incandescent light in the lower section to keep it warm.

I would do as Lou suggest. The time that supplies will last is a very subjective thing. It just depends on how good you are at conserving water. Back when our boys were in their teens, we did a lot of backpacking which really teaches conservation. We also had a popup trailer that carried 15 gallons of water which we could make last for 3 or 4 days with my wife, myself, and 3 sons. Of course that did sponge bathing and not showers, but it shows what can be done. With our first motorhome, Pam & I used to go to square dance festivals that were Friday through Sunday and shower every day, and manage with only 30 gallons of water. Today, we have stopped doing any "ruffing it" type of travel and we till a 25 gallon grey tank in two or three days.

You may have a challenge to meet all of those criteria. I don't know of anywhere that fits them all. Utah can get very cold and there will be times that you only need to step outside to play in the snow. Phoenix area probably comes the closest, except that you will be far from alone there as it is the heart of snowbird country. I suspect that your best answer would be to volunteer for a site at one of our national wildlife refuges as most of them do use some volunteers. I suggest that you look through the areas you may be interested in spending the winter and contact the refuges in that area. In our years as RV volunteers, the largest RV park that we saw had 16 sites and the average was probably 2 sites.

Welcome to the Escapee forums. As Chad said, the dry weight of the trailer really doesn't tell you much as you simply can't use an empty trailer. If you put things like food, clothing, water, and your usual personal items you will add anywhere from 300# to 800# per person going with you. To determine the safe towing capacity of your SUV, visit this website and use the easy calculator.

If the LED lights are 12V, which I suspect that they are, then there is no neutral other than to connect to the most available chassis ground. Even if there were such it would not cause a fuse to open since the grounds all become common anyway. You have a short somewhere in the positive side and since turning off the switches does nothing, that would indicate that the problem is between the two switches and the power fuse.

Are you saying that connecting the inverter/charger to shore power causes you to loose all other 120V power? You do understand that most RV inverters are not connected to supply things like the microwave and air conditioners?

I think that most who go fulltime RVing and stay out for more than a few years do find a great deal of the freedom comes for no longer allowing one's possessions to own them. The greatest degree of freedom comes when you keep no storage at all and everything that you own travels with you. In addition, if you stay on the road for 10 years or more, very quickly the expense of storage will exceed the replacement cost of all but you heirlooms. We stayed on the road for 12 years when health demanded we have a home-base again, we moved into a community of nearly all former fulltimers. We quickly found that most members of that community never did return to a lifestyle ruled by possessions. We have now moved from that community of former fulltimers into an independent living community. As friendly as our present community is, there is nothing quite like the bond that develops in the fulltimer community.

May I ask why it should not be taxed? As a past church treasure and many years as a lay-leader, I have often marveled at what is allowed or overlooked by the IRS.

Our memory foam mattress at home and the memory foam topper in the RV are both quite heavy. The mattress is also very flexible and difficult to move so I suspect that it would tend to end in a pile at the bottom when the bed is in travel position.

Are you suggesting that MN should be the choice for fulltimer domicile? Having spent a great deal of time there before I retired from 32 years with 3M, you are the first person I've heard suggest that.

So sorry to hear of your loss! I have found that the Garmin RV gps works very well for us. You do still have to occasionally use good judgment over it in some more remote locations but rarely.

That just depends on the size and weight of the travel trailer and the size of the tow vehicle. Some small ultra lite trailers have an aluminum frame and forbid the use of the weight distributing type of bars.

The easiest answer would be to run a 12V charging supply from the RV to keep the battery from discharging. That is what I did with our Honda CR-V.

You may find it helpful to read this article from my website that was written by an Australian friend who had 2 different motorhomes kept in the US over a period of about 15 years, kept in 2 different states. Bruce has now sold his US RV due to some health issues but is stall an active RV owner down-under and in fact just left for a trip there.

That is what Escapees RV Club is all about. Start a thread with new questions any time we enjoy these exchanges.

Are you thinking of coming here to use the RV, or did you want to use it at home? We used to have some friends who owned an RV kept in Dallas when not in use that came from South Africa. They were members of Escapees and spent about half time here with the RV, but they sold it several years ago to buy a boat in New Zealand. I've not seen them since that.

This is the first time that I have ever heard of that problem.

Without a doubt, the 3 leading states for RV domicile are TX, FL, and SD. I prefer TX for a number of reasons, but if you will need to purchase health insurance and are not yet eligible for Medicare, the very clear leader would be FL because they have more choices than TX and SD has very limited plans and would be last in such case. I strongly suggest that you consider becoming a member of Escapees RV Club for the many benefits they have to offer. I think that you also need to make sure that you understand just what a domicile is and means as it is not a simple thing. In order to compare the cost to insure, you need to consider the cost of insurance for the RV and tow vehicle when compared to that of any motorized RV. In general the cost to insure will depend on the cost to replace and will be similar if you include the tow vehicle. When shopping insurance you also need to be sure that the company is offering insurance for living in the RV as your only home as that is more costly than standard RV coverage, which will not pay if you live in it fulltime.