Pam and I took an afternoon and decided to go visit the beach while we were passing through Brunswick, GA,  We had just left the beach in Carrabelle, FL as we are starting our journey out of Florida for the summer and fall.  We stayed at Carabelle Beach RV Resort.  It was right across the street from a white sand beach, the kind that you find in the Pan Handle of Florida.  We spent a week there and enjoyed visiting St. George Island.

The site we stayed on was unusual in that you pull in and back out.

While passing through Brunswick, GA we decided to stay at Coastal GA RV park.  It is relatively new, perhaps a few years old and we chose it because we wanted a place that was roomy and designed for larger rigs.  Even though we are now in the 29 foot Winnebago Aspect, when we add the cargo trailer we are 45 feet in length.  It is nice not to have to unhook the trailer in order to fit on a site!

We are posting reviews on rvparkreviews.com for places that we are visiting, so if you want to read what we posted about the parks we mention, you can visit that website.  I use rvparkreviews.com all the time to make a good choice while traveling the country.

While staying at Coastal GA RV Resort for two nights, we decided to visit St. Simon Island. It is part of the Golden Isles that also includes Jekyll Island and Sea Island.  It was a 20-mile scooter ride from the RV park.  It was very scenic and included a drive over a very unique suspension bridge – the Sidney Lanier Bridge.

Once on St. Simon Island we worked our way to the eastern most part to find a really cool east coast Florida type beach: very long and flat sand like you would find at Daytona beach.  We parked the scooter fairly close to the beach entrance and took a nice long walk.

There were lots of people enjoying the sun and surf as the summer season appears to be in full swing.  There were lots of good photo opportunities.

We would recommend a visit to this unique island for a nice getaway.  There are other campgrounds in the area.  We stayed at the campground on Jekyll Island years ago but found it to be much more rustic than we like.  There are plenty of reviews about that park online.

We left Brunswick, GA we headed north along I-95 and have made our way to North Carolina for a week or so.  We are visiting dear friends that live around the Raleigh area. We met them at our first RV inspector training class back in February of 2014.  They have a nice piece of property and a 30 amp plug, so we are spending the weekend with them catching up!

Great friendships are made while enjoying the full time RV living lifestyle!

Check back again as we are posting weekly!!

Blessings,

Howard and Pam

Dealing with the RV sewer hose is one of the joys we get to deal with as RVers!  Whether you are a full-timer, a weekend warrior or the occasional user of an RV, sooner or later you will have a fecal incident!!

Since we switched over from the behemoth 5th wheel RV rig to our more mobile Class C RV home office, we have to deal with the black and gray water RV storage tanks a little more frequently.

Yesterday I decided to really give the black tank a good flushing because even when I emptied the gauges were still reading there was some stuff left in there.  Now, we don’t have internal sensors like some tanks do.  Those can give false readings because “stuff” gets stuck on them and it makes them read that the tank is fuller than it actually is.  We have the external kind so I knew we had stuff that needed to be flushed out!

I emptied the tank and checked inside – looking down through the toilet into to black tank.  Yes, it was still reading 1/3 and I saw why – yuk!!  Okay, so I filled it up all the way full with fresh water and dumped again.  I also did this on the 5th wheel every time I dumped the black tank.  It had a tank rinser though.  Now, I have to use the bathroom sink or a hose to fill the tank.  In this new RV it is plumbed so that bathroom sink runs into the black tank.

I dumped that tank of fresh water and watched the output through my clear Camco sewer attachment.  I noted that sediment was still coming through the hose system.  When I checked the gauges inside the tank was now recording empty.

The other problem we are having is that the park we are in does not have a good draw of waste through its system so I don’t get the flush out that I really need to get everything out of the tank.  When I looked straight down into the tank after the clear water flush I noted that I could still see some sediment collecting around the pipe that comes out of the tank.

I  think I have found a solution to that issue which I will order on Amazon and test out.  I will tell you about that in a later post.

The RV Sewer Hose

But, in order to get rid of your black and gray water from your RV tanks, you need a good reliable RV sewer hose system.  I have been using the old style slinky hose for years. I had not found the need to change because we hooked up our rig and usually left it that way for weeks on end.

However, now that we are moving about quite regularly, I decided to investigate something more sanitary than the old slinky hose stuffed into a garbage bag when moving the RV home.

I have noticed others using Camco’s Rhino Flex RV sewer hose system and thought this may be the way to go.  It has lots of assorted attachments to make the process more orderly and I really liked the end caps that come with the hose system.  Ten feet of RV sewer hose compresses down to a few feet and it stays that way.  Put the end caps on and you can store it safely without worry: no leakage or odor.

Okay, this is where the fecal incident occurred.  When I first hooked up my new Camco RV sewer hose system and pulled the black gate valve, I got an unexpected surprise – stuff leaking out!  Now I have done this process hundreds of times and have only had two fecal incidents.  The first was the old style rubber donut that popped off the sewer outlet, and the second was this one.

I followed the directions about tightening up the hose end couplings before use.  I am using three ten foot sections because where we are now the sewer outlet is all the way at the back of the site – old Florida RV parks, big sigh!!

After investigating further I discover that the coupling that I used to attach to my RV’s hose connection was missing a gasket.  It came that way from the manufacturer and I did not notice it when I hooked up.  Fortunately, I started out slowly as I always do when first hooking up to a new system, and I was able to minimize the fecal matter from going everywhere, including on me!!  And yes, I was wearing rubber gloves.

Well, from here this discussion could go downhill: expletives, potty humor, etc.  But, we won’t go there!!  I did however write an email to Camco about my experience with the Rhino Flex RV sewer hose system.

They did respond quickly and let me know their product has a one year warranty and also sent me out some extra gaskets to fix my immediate problem.  Fortunately, I did have a part that I could borrow a gasket from to complete the black and gray tank dump that I started.  Camco also referred me to some YouTube videos for some extra assistance to be sure I had securely locked the hose end attachments.

We are now all hooked up and things seem to be working fine.  We were in another RV park last week and had much better results.  I think that is due to a more updated RV park sewer system.

Always be sure to utilize a clear adapter so you can see what is coming out of your tanks and to also allow you to verify that your tank flushing activities are achieving the results you desire.

My RV Sewer Hose Review

My overall opinion of this new RV sewer hose system is mostly favorable so far.  I guess you could say I had a crappy start to the initial use of Camco’s Rhino Flex RV sewer hose system, but it is different than what I have used in the past and it does have more parts and pieces.  The more connection points you have the greater the chance of problems if you are not checking your connections before “letting it flow!”

You can purchase parts of the system separately or you can buy a kit.  I bought the 20 foot hose kit that had the couplings and caps included and added their clear adapter which also swivels (needed for my RV) and then purchased an additional 10 foot hose and the sewer hose flush attachment. The best part is that it all reduces down to a manageable size that I place in a small bin for storage in the RV.

So, check back soon as I will be doing a review of Camco’s tank rinser system.

Please feel free to leave a comment or ask a question before you go!

Happy Travels from Pam, Howard and of course, Lindsey!  Check out her weekly bark report.  She has been quite humorous lately!!

Hi to all my fellow tree sniffers and leg lifters.  Lindsey here with my Weekly Bark Report.  I know, mom says I been bad cuz I haven’t kept everyone up to date.  My bad.  I got really lazy with all this hot weather.  Makes my paws stink.  Does anyone else have “Frito Paws”?  Mom is weird.  She smells my feet and says they smell like Fritos.  What’s a frito? 

I have to say this Corgi is loving living aboard my moving house.  

We just got back from visiting my Uncle Adam and Aunt Rebecca and that little pain in my face Rylee.  I love Aunt Rebecca cuz she gives me big chunks of apples and other treats. (Mom needs to be more like her. Hee!) Rylee tries to steal them.  I was hiding in my crate with a big old pillow in front to protect me and SHE pushes it away to try to get into my face, the little brat.  I was pretending to be nice in front of the camera!

We also got to visit dad’s bitch and stud.  I can’t call them Grammy and Grampy.  I’m not sure why so please don’t tell them.  It’s boring there, you know.  All I get to do is sleep in the laundry room while they eat, drink and laugh. This is always my chance to really catch up on a good puppy nap, recharge my battery.

Next week is probably my favorite reason for loving the lifestyle.  We get to move!  We get to leave this place called Palmetto,  It’s really kinda nasty here with lots of bugs.  I love sitting outside with mom and dad but we can’t do that here.  Mom calls them no-see-ums. I don’t know why, I can see-um.  Humans are weird. All these old people here that look worse than my grammy and grampy.  Can’t even take a decent walk here cuz they let their furbabies in my face. GRRRR!  

Now we get to go to all different places and all the cool pee-mails to read and respond to.  This summer we get to move the house alot!  Mom said our first stop is the beach. It’s called Care-A-Bell. I sure hope I can get sand in my toes there.  It’ll be really fun to sit outside again and watch all the people go by.  I know dad will still have his nose in his phone cuz it’s always chirping and clucking and pinging and ponging. 

Mom said after our little Lay Down time we are going to a bunch of new places for dad to teach his RV ‘Spector classes.  One is called Rawlee for in the second paw-week in June.  I get to see Miss Carmen again.  She’s really cool.  

Then we get to go see a couple other Corgi friends at Middlebury. That sounds like a cool place. Makes me want to bury my bone.  I think mom said it’s in IN, or is it OUT?  I can’t ‘member.   Dad has 2 classes there. One last paw week of June and middle paw of July.  I can’t wait to see Koi, Kiah and Kimball again.  Miss Hope and Mr Nick are neato.  They have Corgi-paloosa there so lots of Corgis come. I follow Kiah and Kimball on Facebook when mom isn’t looking. .

Mom says after that we may even get to go to Canada for dad to teach a class in the 4th Paw week of July.  I don’t know what Canada is but mom says it’s really big, eh? I’m a little worried because I may get examined? I hope it’s not like going to the Vet.

Next we go to Mercer, PAW first paw week of August.  Work work work.  All dad does is talk about RV ‘Spections everywhere we go.  I’m not looking forward to going to Nagra Falls area after PAW.  I don’t think I like the name, Bath, New York. I know what mom will be doing 4th paw week in August while dad is teaching if the name means anything.  E-ooooh.

Finally then after the dog days of summer, 1st paw week of October mom said dad will have a class near Chocolate, PAW.  Someplace called Manheim.  Any idea what a Man-Heim is?  Sounds like one of those foamy things mom and dad drink they call beers.

Okay I’m getting tired just thinking about all the traveling we’ll be doing. I think I need a nap, again cuz I know after Chocolate mom said something about heading to Heebie Jeebies Springs in Ar-Can-Sis.  I’ll tell you about that another time.  Time to catch some ZZZZZZs. 

Lindsey out for now. 

We have owned five different refrigerators in RVs: two were Norcold refrigerators and three were residential refrigerators. I personally would take the residential fridge over the gas/electric Norcold refrigerator any day. However, in certain size RVs, it just makes more sense for the RV manufacturers to put in the absorption-type units.

Norcold Refrigerator Safety

Certainly, if you have either a Norcold or Dometic refrigerator, you should be sure your unit is not on recall.  You can go to Norcold or Dometic’s website to verify that you are not on the recall list.  

Armed with your model, fridge serial number, and cooling unit serial number you can verify that your unit is okay.  You may also have to look for the upgrade kit that may have already been installed in your RV fridge if you have an older unit.  This is Norcold’s process:

This is what you need to do for a Dometic Unit:

Avoiding Trouble

One of the best ways to avoid trouble with your Dometic or Norcold refrigerator is to be sure when you are using the fridge on either gas or electric; the unit is level!  I have heard RVers say I use my fridge all the time, and the unit is not always level, and I have never had a problem.

That may be true, but the damage that can happen occurs over time.  Each occurrence when the boiler overheats due to a non-level condition reduces the fridges efficiency not allowing it to cool the way it was supposed to.  Our previous Norcold refrigerator could barely keep fifty-five degrees when it was in the nineties outside.

That was in our previous 5th wheel RV before we put hydraulic levelers on it.  You see, even being off three degrees from level can create issues for your absorption fridges boiler assembly / cooling unit.  The best way to avoid this situation is to not run the fridge when you are in unlevel conditions: driving up and down unlevel highways and back roads and parking in unlevel areas.  That way you will avoid damaging your fridges cooling unit. 

If you feel your RV is not level, this is a good time to be sure your Dometic or Norcold refrigerator is not turned on.  Your fridge can stay cold for hours without power.  We can travel eight hours and the fridge will only drop a few degrees if we don’t open the doors.

And by the way, you should never travel with your propane system energized.  It clearly states this on the safety placards in your RV, especially motorized RV’s!  Early on in our RVing lives we were not told this fact. “Sure, you can run the fridge while traveling!  Don’t turn that propane off, just leave it on and you’ll be fine!”  

That’s what the RV rental companies told us, so we did. A few years later, we almost lost our RV to a propane fire. If not for dumb luck, we decided to stop and look in our fifth-wheel RV, and we found a fire brewing. But this is what can happen!

Avoiding a Fire!

When trouble occurs in the RV refrigerator cycle, the heat that normally drives the refrigeration cycle can become destructive.   If conditions have been allowed to occur, like operating in an unlevel condition over extended periods of time, trouble could be lurking.  When this heat is not controlled, fire will occur!  

Even Dometic and Norcolds recalls have not stopped their refrigerators from burning an RV to the ground.  The temperatures they are trying to control run around 355 to 400 degrees.  Those are the temperatures involved in these absorption fridges!

Norcold Refrigerator Solutions

The best way to avoid a fire is to control what happens in the refrigerator’s Cooling unit.

Mac the Fire Guy is a proponent of installing a fire suppression system in the cooling unit area of the fridge.  It is a unit that releases a foam in the exterior fridge area that puts out a fire when the temperature in that area reaches a preset level.  I believe the best way to prevent an RV fridge fire is to automatically shut down the unit when the temperature reaches unsafe levels.

The addition of a twelve-volt fan in the outside fridge compartment can allow air to move more freely over the cooling unit and drastically improve its efficiency. Camco makes a fridge roof vent kit that uses a fan and solar power and replaces the existing roof vent.

I will share another method I believe will also work well in a future blog. So, stay tuned, and as always, feel free to comment if you wish!

Okay, it’s me, Lindsey again. Here with the “RV Weekly Bark Report” you’ve all been waiting for.  This week’s topic really curls my tail . . . Oh, I don’t have one!  Well, it really curls my big ears: can’t we control dog shedding?

Dad calls me a hair bag all the time!  He says there is too much Corgi hair in MY RV.  Might I just add that I’ve licked plenty of human hair off the floor, and floaters out of my water bowl.  Do you hear me complaining?  What’s the big deal?  The big AC unit blows and the hair goes airborne.  It’s a great game to try to catch it before it hits the floor.  I don’t understand!  This is really fun!  They should try it.  Control dog shedding . . . not while this Corgi lives here!!

Weekly Bark Report

I know all my fellow doggie RVers have been waiting patiently to see what new insight I might have for them on how to deal with their human Show-fers. (I don’t have dew claws so it’s really hard for me to check a dictionary)

They get to drive me all over the country while I write messages on the windows with my nose.  I pay them back for their services by letting Mom and Dad live in MY RV and sleep in my queen size bed.  I get the middle and they have to sleep on either side.

Y’ all do know what RV really stands for right?  Rover’s Vehicle!  Like my accent?  After 7 years in Florida, I’m trying to fit in.  Bark y’ all, bark y’ all.

Control Dog Shedding

Anyway, mom gets this great idea to get a new brush to control dog shedding.  They babysat a 7-month-old Corgi that had come with all kinds of stuff, and a different kind of dog hair brush. How dare the little brat invade my RV!  They didn’t ask me if I wanted a visitor!

Anyway, Mom fell in love with this brush that Rylee had.  Mom thought it worked really well to control dog shedding!  So I’m thinking, gee, thanks Rylee.

The thing is called the Shed Monster.  It’s really not a monster.  Not scary at all compared to that other brush Mom had.  I tried to bury it in an army-dillo hole but mom caught me.  You know those funny looking things with the hard shell and long pointy nose?

I actually think this shed monster brush feels pretty good.  It gets all my nasty undercoat out.  The other brush really tugged and pulled and scratched me.  I’m all for a good back scratch, but that one was like spikes. Owooooooo!

Worst part about this whole deal is she takes me outside on a picnic table to embarrass me!  Imagine, my stub hanging out for all to see.  Gee willies.  I can hear all my fellow RVer dogs howling with laughter at me watching this torture.  Keep it up doggies, your humans may do this to you someday too. Then watch this Corgi have a really good laugh.

Later, it’s fun watching the birds from my RV window picking up all my hair she brushed on the ground. The birds take it to make a bed for their babies. Dad says it’ll make a stinky bed.  Hhhmmm.  The birds don’t seem to mind. They even fight over it sometimes.

Sometimes before enduring this brushing to control dog shedding, I have to get a bath!  So, before the little shed monster strikes I see towels pulled out and then I know that the ritual baptism is coming.

I think I smell really good.  Dad says I smell like an a$$ because I lick my butt!  He’s just jealous!

Mom has this stuff she rubs all over me during this baptism. She calls it Tropiclean Shampoo.  More like Tropi-smelly to my nose.  Mom loves to snuggle with me afterwards cuz she says I smell so good.  Have you ever smelled a wet dog?   I guess Mom has no sense of smell.  Whatever!  The things a cute Corgi has to endure!!  I get even though.  Neither of us comes out of that ordeal dry.

Okay, gotta go.  Here comes Mom shaking her finger at me. Uh Oh . . . caught in the act using the computer again.  I’ll bark at y’ all again!

Mom here!  Okay, Lindsey had her fun and we are going to let this one fly as I know Lindsey really wants to share her views on the internet.  We hope some of her tail-wagging friends will comment back because Lindsey really wants some canine companionship while on the road in OUR RV!

So dogs, bark away!  Get your Mom and Dad to share your thoughts with Lindsey!

Finding Good Florida RV Campgrounds

Stephen King calls Florida the land of the newlywed and nearly dead.  I have heard others call Florida God’s waiting room.  Certainly I have observed one thing for sure: Florida RV campgrounds are old!  We have had a tough time finding parks that are newer, that offer even basic services and that have been updated recently.

Disclaimer: This is Just My Opinion!  I am Going to Have Some Written Amusement!

And, they are loaded with park models and territorial owners.  More and more of these Florida RV campgrounds are going for that crowd because it brings in income on a year-round basis.  We full time RVers are getting pushed out in favor of this particular demographic:  from up north, they come for the winter months, and they turn their noses up at RVers when in actuality the names for most of these parks have RV in it, not park model!

I am all for RVers joining the club and traveling in their RV.  It is good for the industry.  It is a great lifestyle, but we are getting squeezed out by non-RVing crowd taking over these Florida RV campgrounds.

The park we are in right now was so busy earlier in the year I could hardly get in and out of my site with all the vehicles here and due to the narrow roads of this old park.  It is called an RV Resort.  Hardly!!

There is no resort about it!  It’s old, asphalt looks like twenty miles of bad road, NARROW streets, poor sewer service that has no draw to it, you get one 50amp plug and that’s it.  We tried to sit out when the weather was nice but got eaten alive by no-see-ums and mosquito’s.  Oh, and trains all hours of the day and night!  In the busy season, there could be ten a day!

We are sandwiched in between two park models.  On our street, there are seventy-five percent of the sites that are park models.  The rest of the park is even a higher percentage.  If you want just RV sites you park on grass and then don’t have full hookups.  They call them overflow sites.  The surprising thing is that in February people would take anything because they could not find RV sites because they waited till the last minute to book a reservation.

This place may be for some people, but it is sure not for me.  These people are all my parents age.  Hey, we are all going to get old, I just don’t have to be reminded of it every day.  Actually, it’s not the age of a person, it’s the attitude.  I call them lemon trees!  I have met some folks in their 80’s who don’t act this way.  It’s just most of these people at these Florida RV campgrounds just act old.  And nosey too!!  Tell one and the whole place knows about you.  And what they don’t find out, they make up!  I guess they have nothing better to do!

We Are Having Some Fun Now!!

Hey, I am not knocking old people, well not too much.  My parents are in their late eighties and at that age things just look a little different I guess. Have old people made Florida what it is?  What is going to happen to these RV parks when this generation is gone?  I guess there will be a lot of empty old park models!

I have been traveling around Florida for the past seven years and I have found few parks that I really liked.  The ones I did like charge $50 or more dollars per night, and in the season.  If you don’t mind parking on grass (or weeds), ants and palmetto bugs in and around your rig, being able to watch your neighbor perform acts that should be private due to closeness of RV sites, people thinking that cutting through your site is their God-given right, unlevel sites, and difficulties navigating through these parks, then some of these Florida RV Campgrounds are for you!

You can find them on most of the discount camping clubs!  You can be sure if they are offering a discount, there may a reason why!  They are great for an overnight stay, but that’s about it!  You have to check out there website and the RV Park Review website to be sure.

Again, this is my website and my opinion, and I am entitled to express it!  I want you to be aware, do your research and choose wisely, or you may have a very unhappy stay.

Lindsey checking in here with the “RV Weekly Bark Report”.  I just wanted to have my say about this whole Full Time RVing Dogs thing.  Mom and Dad give their opinions but where’s the voice of the furbabies.

First off, I want to say I don’t appreciate being call neurotic, whatever that means.  They take me from a huge house, put me in a moving house and now in a tiny house.  What’s next?  Will we all be living in my crate?! No way, that’s all mine.

Anyway, it is really cool to have them around most all the time and now I get to go with them when they go to work inspectin’ moving homes is what dad calls it.  I guess you call that work.  I’d rather just watch from the window.  I see them crawling all over other homes on wheels.  Some like we used to have, some like ours and some really big ones. 

I wonder if they would get one of those for me for my birthday?  It’s coming up in July in case anyone is interested.  I could play fetch from front to back in those big ones and not run into the bed all the time like I do here.

Mom did get me some really neato food when we got this littler home.  I used to get some frozen raw food, but now she found freeze dried for me. She said there is no room in the freezer anymore for the frozen.  I really, really, like this better.  It’s called Stella and Chewy’s.  All different kinds of flavors.  

At first I thought we were getting 2 more furbabies, one named Stella and one named Chewy but it turned out to be just a red bag of food. Mom says it’s way better for me, better ingredients. What’s an ingredient? All I know is it tastes really good.  

She said maybe if Maya (my sister that’s gone over the Rainbow Bridge) had it during her life she may not have gotten Lymphoma. That’s another big word I don’t know. All I know is Mom said Maya had it and then she never came back.

Another cool thing is sometimes mom would let me drive the big truck. (Don’t tell dad! He would never give me the keys. He had issues with slobber on the steering wheel.)  I’m hoping that maybe I can take the little house out for a spin sometime.  It’s not that much bigger than the truck.

Mom is always a pushover for a pleading look.   She’s always smothering me with kisses.  Gees!  I tried to hide next to the bed, but she found me there.  My crate is the only other option. Maybe she won’t see me there.  I try to blend in.  Is it working? (Does my butt look big in this crate?)

So stayed tuned for more of my Bark Report as it would appear that mom and dad like full time RVing dogs.  I guess I’ll stick around for a bit.  It’s getting funner the more we move around.  Enough said, Lindsey out.

Pam here!  Okay, we let Lindsey have her say.  Let us know if you want to hear more from her.  She’s quite busy but I am sure we can tear her away from her nap to write some more good stuff!

And as always, please feel free to leave comments and Lindsey, I mean we will get back to you!

Happy tails, I mean Happy Travels!!

Greetings Everyone!  Pam and I are taking our web site in a new direction! We want to share more of our personal experiences with you in regards to the full time RV living lifestyle.  We have been fairly static in the past seven years of full time life, but since we have changed from the monster truck and 5th wheel to living in a small RV: living in a Class C RV to be exact, all 29 feet of it, we have more to share with you!

Lindsey, the neurotic Corgi, has also expressed her desire to be more a part of the conversation.  She says she has had no input thus far on how this RV life affects her.  So we are going to allow her to share some of her thoughts with you too!  She wants to be able to let her canine friends in on what this full time RV life is all about.

We have been living in a small RV now since we traded our truck and 5th wheel back in late February.  It has taken some time to get everything we had in the fifth wheel in the right places in the Class C RV!  Of course we could not fit everything we had in the fifth wheel in here.  So, we have a 6×12 cargo trailer to pick up the slack.  I am still working to secure everything so that when we hit the road at the end of May, we won’t have a tossed salad in there!

The Honda scooter we have had always been transported on the back of the 5th wheel on a platform that I had built.  Now it can safely go in the trailer and be kept out of the elements during travel.  It is also so much easier to get stored due to the lower height and secure mounting of the Condor Scooter Chock.  I have been using that device since 2010 and it has worked well to keep the scooter secure during travel.

This summer we will be traveling up the east coast holding RV inspector training classes.  Our travels will take us along the east coast states, perhaps as far west as Ohio, up into the Northeast states, and maybe even into Canada as it looks like the NRVIA may make its way to our friends in the northern country, Eh?

We have taken the Class C RV on some shorter road trips around Florida and find it so easy to navigate, to park, to break camp, and to live in!  It has everything we need to be comfortable.  I really love having a generator available with the push of a button, unlike the 5th wheel that we had to use an external generator.  That was never a quick process!

We were parked at Lazydays RV Campground in Seffner Florida last week.  I was holding a 5-day Advanced RV Inspector training class at their Rally Park.  We spent the week with five NRVIA certified RV inspectors.  They are a great group of guys that really worked hard to get everything they could out of the class!

Anyway, we had a little graduation party the last evening of the class and Pam and I needed to head out as we had a commitment the following morning.  So, it was 7:30pm when we ended the celebration, and by 7:40pm we had jacks up, slides in, the electric awning away, electric and water attachments stored, and we hit the road.  That would have taken hours in the 5th wheel!

We arrived at our destination a few hours later, backed in, jacks down, services reconnected, slides out and it’s happy living in a small RV, just a different view out the window and only ten minutes after backing in. Awesome!!  In the past, in ten minutes I was still backing the 60-foot behemoth into the usually inadequate sized RV site.

We’ll keep you posted and have more for you in a few days.  Stay tuned and come back soon!  And as always, feel free to leave a comment if we can be of assistance as you look at the full time RV life.

Well, we did it!  We decided, due to business needs, to full time in a smaller RV!  For the past six plus years, we have been living in our forty foot 5th wheel pulled by our Freightliner Sportchassis.  It was very comfortable and served our needs well for that time.

But one thing is for sure.  When it came to moving day it never happened quickly!  There was always a list of things to do and everything had to be moved around in order for the 5th Wheel RV to be ready to move.  We, as well as other full time RVers, have had the discussions about larger 5th wheels, that they are great while stationary but a major stress event when it comes to rolling your RV home down the road.

Since beginning our RV Inspection business, we have felt that being more mobile would be beneficial in developing our business further.  The ability to move at will and with greater efficiency is needed.  So far, this is working well!  Since we have gone from 40′ to 29′, we have had no problem adjusting to the new space!

We have overcome the storage issues by acquiring a 6×12 V-nosed Diamond Cargo trailer to handle the items that we want with us: Honda scooter, bikes, personal items, etc.  Since the RV can handle towing 5,000 lbs with a 350 lb tongue weight, we are well below those numbers for our needs.

As far as the inside, the floor plan that we chose, the 27K for the Winnebago Aspect, has what we needed to be comfortable for our needs. We have been in the RV for almost a month, driven it 500 miles around Florida, and are very happy with how it is meeting our full time RV living requirements!

We can be on the road in an hour compared to a day or two.  And with our RV inspection business growing as it is, we need that kind of flexibility.  For some, that may not be an issue.  But for most, moving a 5th wheel can definitely be a stressful situation.  Ours was approaching ten years old and with every move new issues would arise.

There is nothing like rolling down the road in a motorized RV and being able to see what is going on in your RV as you travel the fine roads of these United States!

Has the smaller space been a detriment  to us?  Absolutely not!!  I can’t say we could have come from our 3,800 square foot house to this RV right off, but the jump from that to the fifth wheel, to this was a logical progression that was doable for us.

Sure, the shower is smaller, we don’t have a washer and dryer anymore, and we lack the openness of what we had, but we have a goal in mind and this new RV helps us to reach that goal.

Could you do the same?  I would say rent one first and see what it is like before you spend the bucks!  Oh, and by the way, we found our “like new” two-year-old RV at Lazydays and it was just what we were looking for.  I also inspected it and was happy with what we found.

It is always best to buy used!  You save a lot of money that way!  Just be sure to have a certified RV inspection done so you know what you are buying.

I will post more about the full time in a small RV living experiences soon!  Stay tuned!!