Kirk W

The other parts of the refrigerator just need to be emptied and the unit off, leaving the doors propped open partially for ventilation.

Those battery lights commonly found in nearly all RVs are of almost no value at all. As a retired tech I would rate them anywhere from inaccurate to totally useless. Are you using the furnace at all? If you are the blower is probably the thing drawing down the batteries. The water pump doesn't run long enough to make much load unless you take a long shower. The water heater and refrigerator both use 12V power to operate the controls but it is a very small load and should take days if not weeks to deplete your batteries. Keep in mind that 200 watts from your solar is only possible with clear sky and the panels at 90° to the sun. For 3 hours per day of sun that isn't much even if they are in full sun. It would also be helpful to know more about the inverter. What make and model do you have?

In most cases, you can use pretty much any brand or model of toilet to replace what the RV builder installed.

We did the same with the same sort of result.

Just wondering, are you surprised?

While generally speaking a bigger black tank is better, do not overlook the size of the gray water tank as it is usually the more limiting waste tank because much more of your used water goes into it and the vast majority of us find the gray always fills up first. You didn't mention the size of the gray water tank in the subject RV.

I just do not consider emptying the black tank to be at all difficult and I have nothing to clean up when finished. It was quite a few years ago that we lived with a cassette toilet, but unless things have changed many parks with vault toilets do not appreciate you dumping one in the toilet and if you do that you also must manage to hold that cassette over the toilet seat while you empty it, and I happen to prefer gloves for that job! There will be times that not everything will be liquid when you empty so use gloves or not... I strongly believe that emptying my black tank is far less difficult than the cassette was and less often. I have never seen a 9-gallon cassette and the smaller the tank the more frequently you need to empty it. I would bet that Jim also extends the time his cassette will last by using a bush when he pees. If you really travel like Jim and spend long periods out where there are no dump stations, then you may want the cassette as it can be emptied into a vault toilet where a black tank can't but most of us do not have that issue very often. If you really want to know, visit a campground and ask those you see emptying a black tank what they would rather do. Consider this. If the cassette toilet was more popular than the black tank, why do most RVs have a black tank and no cassette, even if that tank is small? It may be something to do with which one will sell best for some reason....... You may want to count how many posts have come from those who prefer a cassette toilet and compare to the number with a black tank.

I have had both and the tank is by far my preference for many reasons, but none of this has anything to do with the question that was asked.

Oops. Misread the tank...🙄 In our present small travel trailer, we have a 20 gallon black tank and it will usually last us about a week, sometimes a little bit more.

It is one of those situations where risk is greater because the potential reward or loss is also great. I stopped investing in individual stocks some years ago when I reached the age of required annual withdrawals in order to minimize risk but still find it interesting to watch some more interesting stocks along with the overall market.

I probably drove 90% of the time when we were fulltime and at least 95% of the time now that we are back to part-time. Dumping tanks is something that she didn't like doing so I did at least 90% of that as well, although she did occasionally just to make sure that she could if ever needed. We both grew up in an era of pink jobs and blue jobs and so found that to be our preference. We always made sure that either of us could do the other's jobs if needed, but only enough to be sure. Some things we did as a team like hooking up the CR-V but even then we usually had our own roles. One thing life has taught us is that the best way to do things is what each couple likes best and may sometimes be very different from what we think best.

Welcome to the Escapee forums! While it is true that you need to downsize what you carry I advise against giving up all of your hobbies, or even most of them. This is not just a vacation but the rest of your life so you will want your hobbies at times and surely you can find ways to do them without too much bulky equipment? Of course, if your hobby is blacksmithing or something of that nature, then it may not be workable... We traveled in a 36' class A and rarely had an issue with large enough sites. Even if you go up to something 40' long with multiple slides, you can still find places to park it as there are a lot of them out there but you may need to plan farther ahead. In some cases, you will probably need to make reservations and there may be some parks that you don't fit into, but there are ways to manage. s

You may want to try and make it to Tucson next March for the annual Escapade.

America the Beautiful, Senior Pass

We do that now since we downsized. Pam's health issues had us off of the road for a couple of years so we went with a small Ultralite travel trailer that we cold two with our SUV. Later got a good buy on a Dodge/Cummins that tows a lot better and health issues have improved so we now stay out longer than expected by using the truck with a shell for storage. We still miss the old class A and the fulltime lifestyle, but we still manage several months at a trip. It all depends on how you choose to travel. For some, the groups like Thousand Trails and Coast to Coast are a great deal as you can save a lot by staying in those parks if that is your lifestyle. We prefer the Army Corps of Engineer parks as our first choice and with the federal senior card they are a real bargain and we still do some volunteer for RV site positions so for us those groups don't do much. The discount groups like Passport America and Happy Campers can easily save the cost of membership and more for nearly any long-term RV traveler. Both of those are half price discount groups and while not the top line parks in most cases, they save money very quickly. The parks in TT and C2C are more destination parks and not so much overnight stops like the discount groups.

That is a wise move. Being only about 5' 7" (I call that more down to earth) I have not had that issue but one motorhome that we looked at had a seat so far back that I could hardly reach with it at it's closest and Pam could not reach (she is only 5'2").

Since power could travel from the inverter to the batteries, or from the batteries, you want one at both ends? Never seen that done in an RV.

When young I often wished that I were physically bigger but in submarine service, I discovered that sometimes the advantage is to we smaller folks. With RVing I found this to be true again and the bathrooms are one of the reasons. Problems of this sort can be real stinkers!

One that we found to be very helpful when we were on the road full-time was Day's End which is available since you are a member of Escapees.

There are a growing number of people working on the road and I would encourage you to do so as well. You may also want to check out the X-scapers side of the Escapees club since that is mostly working folks.

I understand your reasoning but don't write off your future too much too soon. I know very little of the sort of issues that you are dealing with, but you certainly have my empathy. Sounds like sort of an opposite to diabetes issues. Even Google doesn't seem to know much about it but wish you the best success in your fulltime experience and in your health issues as you go.

Have your questions now been answered?

Not really my business, but if you do not mind saying, how old are you now?

I found it! The nuCamp, TAB 320CS teardrop design. The use of the @ rather than A kind of threw me for a bit. It does look impressive but you sure won't be taking much with you. It does puzzle me that they do not list a gross weight rating?

Welcome to the Escapee forums. I hope that you did watch the above-mentioned video as it may help you to understand. It is also important to realize that neither of the RV plugs that were in that video will connect to the generator you are looking at, directly. Each one of these requires the use of an adapter that isn't mentioned in that video and they aren't readily available in RV supply stores. It is also important to realize that this generator weighs 262#.