Kirk W

We are in Mesquite, but not living in the RV. We traveled for almost 12 years and still miss it. The weather here does get cold enough that you will want to skirt the RV to keep the cold winds out from under it and you need to have your water supply well insulated to prevent freezing. We have spent as much as 3 months at Lavon Lake when we were fulltime and did pretty well but you will use a lot of energy to heat the RV.

I found your site interesting but I also think that you will find not all experienced RV owners will agree with some of what you are telling visitors. That may not be a major problem but there are many other sites available so it is something to consider. I would be very careful about downgrading any RV manufacturer because of potential legal issues. Most RV reviews are careful not to compare directly to another brand but just rate the RV/model being discussed. The question that I have is how the site will generate significant income? There are many others with sites that are pretty much free to the visitors. You are getting into a busy market so it won't be easy but your site does look good. You could probably improve your site's popularity if you were to write for some RV magazines and get published there and that could supplement your income.

Ours was a 15A popup to a 30A travel trailer. It seemed that we had power to waste! There will always be a legitimate market for the less expensive RVs that have only 30a. Our present 20' travel trailer could hardly make use of a 50A supply.

Do you plan to start to travel more in the future or will you be tied to a fixed job location? There is a growing population of members who work from the road.

While diesel prices have increased since 2005, the chart that I found shows Sept. 2005 at $2.819 as a national average and 2019 at $3.016. Living on a fixed income now for nearly 20 years, I assure you that fuel prices have not risen as much as many other things. What we noticed most in rising cost on our last trip with the RV was campground prices. In looking at inflation reports, I found the following information: Our Price Basket: There has been about a 32% increase from 2008 to 2019. Based on our latest extended travel (March & April 2019) I would agree that the cost of travel has increased significantly since 2005, but I don't think that it is increased much more than other living costs.

If you are still reading this, it would be nice to know whether the replies have been helpful and what you may still wish to know.

Welcome to the Escapee forums! The weather will be much better in Texas in January that it is in South Dakota and also the choices of RV will also be much greater for many reasons. Texas has a population of nearly 30 million people while South Dakota has fewer than 1 million and Houston area is nearly 4 million people while Rapid City South Dakota has fewer than 75, 000 people. In addition, winter brings many seasonal travelers to Texas and inflates the RV market while winter causes the RV business to nearly stop in South Dakota. The typical high temperature in SD for January is 31°F(0° C) while in Houston it would be 60° F(15.5° C). As you can see the weather will be much better in Houston. As mentioned previously, you also need to consider what you will do about health insurance since there is none provided for you here. Florida would also have better weather and a good RV market place to shop so it may be a better choice for you. If you would share a little more about your plans with us, we could probably give better advice. Since you mention having green cards, am I to assume that this is a permanent move to the US? Will you be seeking employment here? Let us know how we can help as we like to assist new folks to the RV lifestyle.

Here is an interesting article about the fulltime & extended travel of retired RV owners in Australia. How grey nomads will change as future generations cannot afford the escape

Same for a plugged cooling unit if it doesn't go away with the suggested fix. The only experience that I have had with the "burp" repair for a plug made mine work for about 3 months and then it happened again. That time neither laying it on the side or the top did any good. I replaced the refrigerator then but that was also more than 20 years ago.

You are probably correct, but the first post asked about the difference between 30A and 50A service. That breaker (like all such circuit breakers) actually has 3 trip points. They are long time, which means continuous, short time for such things as starting currents, and instantaneous, which is for a direct short or extremely high load. Typical long time trip setting is about 80% of the breaker's rated capacity.

Which is the reason that we, and may others choose to go fulltime in a gasoline powered class A. Long ago I discovered that no matter what sort of RV you have, the scenery looks just as good and the sun is just as warm as it is for those in the most expensive RVs available. What is important is that you enjoy your RV travels, not what the "experts" believe that you should have done.

I agree with Lou. If there is or has been any hint of ammonia smell in either the refrigerator interior or the rear access area or if the rear shows any signs of yellow mud or powder, those are signs that you have lost refrigerant from the cooling unit. You can get a copy of the N811 service manual at this link.

You have made a good decision. Set up properly the Brake Buddy will serve you well and you will be far more safe in an emergency.

I have a friend who has a restored 1949 Ford with the old flathead V8. He has no problem getting parts for it, even though that engine was discontinued in after 1952.

One problem in troubleshooting the circuit boards is a lack of schematic for them. I know of no source for circuit board schematics. I have often wished that I could find one. Am I correct that your refrigerator never automatically selects 120V? That seems to be the reason you don't get electric operation. If you had not replaced the main circuit board, I'd suggest that but, unless something is damaging them it seems very unlikely to be the issue. Let me check to see if I can find someone who works in RV repairs to help you.

Everything? We have done guided tours in several parks in the past few years and all were half price with our cards. Other than campgrounds, food, & accommodations, what else have you seen supplied by vendors in the parks and which parks?

For those who have never attended an Escapade, here is an article to help figure things out. A Complete Guide to Attending and Thriving at Your Next RV Event

How do you go about getting it replaced? We first had the cardboard Golden Age cards and later when entering a park the ranger replaced those for us with the newer cards with a magnetic stripe but we still have and use the last version of Golden Age cards and have not updated to an America the Beautiful Senior Card and it has never been questioned nor has a replacement been offered.

Welcome to the Escapee forums! If you were to share more information about yourself, it would be much easier for members here to give you advice on what your choices may be. Nobody can tell you what is best for you but we can share our experiences and observations. The best RV is a very subjective thing and one that is the cause of a great deal of debate among even the most experienced RV owners. The maintenance cost of any motorized RV is going to be very similar to the cost of a truck and an RV. No matter what RV you choose, you have to do things like oil changes and other regular maintenance that is based on miles traveled and your RV will have some maintenance on the RV and it's equipment. All RVs have pretty much the same maintenance issues and all chassis have similar also. Even when you compare diesels to gasoline chassis, the annual expenses are not that different. The age and the quality of the RV is a much bigger factor in maintenance costs. There is not a great deal of difference in the roads that your RV can travel if the class A and the class C are both of similar length and weight. Most people do not take either one over unmaintained roads for very much distance but if you were to visit some of the Bureau of Land Management Long Term Visitor Areas, you will find a cross section of RV types there which is similar to that found in any RV park. As you travel into the national forests and such the roads become more challenging and the number and size of RV declines. Successful long term parking in remote areas is more a matter of the equipment you add to an RV than it is of the type of RV. I have never seen any documented numbers of types of RV found in long term dry camping areas, but I suspect that class A's are far more common than class C's.

If you are living in it full-time the you control the cost of fuel by spending longer at each stop and by traveling more slowly with shorter distances between stops. You traveled 8000 miles in two months which is about the most that we ever traveled with our RV in a full year when fulltime. We did travel by motorhome towing a car so our side trips while stopped had much better fuel mileage with an average between 20 & 30 mpg and that mileage was in addition to the 5 - 8k per year on the motorhome. We usually put about 15k per year on it in addition to that of the motorhome. If you were to go fulltime and continue to travel at the rate of your trip, that would mean you would be traveling 48,000 miles per year, which is far above what any fulltimer we have known ever traveled. Even if you were to travel from Florida to Alaska and back to Florida in one year, you would probably not drive much more than 10 to 12k. Using your numbers, 8,000 miles in 60 days is an average of 133 miles every day of your trip!

Very well put!

You make a very good point, but I visited the NPS website and am unable to locate anything that is related to the referenced subject or article. How about posting a link to the information that you read?

Welcome to the Escapee forums!