Community Forums

bremde · 07-23-2018, 06:34 PM

We live down a 1/4 mile drive with trees etc. We just got our Anthem 42 and decided to keep it at home.

We had a local land clearing guy come out and build a 30 X 60 pad of fill and top it with 3/4 minus compacted to match our drive. It needed to come up 4 ft. I made a 125 foot 50 Amp extension cord that runs from our house to the coach. Hooked in 2 100ft hoses and now we are set until next year when we put up a steel building. We are gone all winter so we don't have to worry about the coach over the winter. The total cost was $6800.

Everywhere is probably different for costs.

Here is a pic if that helps.

MuddyPaws2 · 07-24-2018, 05:46 AM

Wow, that looks amazing. That is what we would like to do or at least something like that.
Here is a picture of our drive. Off to the right is where dh wants the coach to go.
Who would you contact, a general contractor, a landscaper, a hardscaper??
TIA!

Quote:

Originally Posted by bremde

We live down a 1/4 mile drive with trees etc. We just got our Anthem 42 and decided to keep it at home.
Here is a pic if that helps.

bremde · 07-24-2018, 02:00 PM

We used Craigslist in the Services/ Farm & Garden section looking for site and land clearing. You can save quite a bit if they have all their own equipment. Ask to see some examples of their work and references, licenses. Go to the places they show you and see if it matches up with you quality expectations.

We were lucky and found someone who met our needs. We are in the Western Washington area and it is very rural so we were not going to have a problem with our neighbors. They did this in 3 days.

Good luck and be sure to let us know how you did.

W0GEN · 07-24-2018, 05:55 PM

Make sure they are insured! Don't hire a contractor who does not carry it... When they don't carry insurance is is sometimes an indicator of potential issues.

TeJay · 07-24-2018, 06:18 PM

We do live out in the woods also. We have a driveway up to the house and installed a metal carport which is also covered down 4/5th of the way to the ground. It could have been covered all the way down.

I've scrounged some metal siding so now I can build a back and front with doors. I also ran a 4" PVC to our septic clean out which we have never had to use in 35 years. We generally leave our last CG with a black tank about 1/2 full, travel home is it's all ready to be dumped into the septic.

Why do you need a 50 amp service?? The primary reason to have a 50 amp service is if you need to run two AC's. We'd never need it even if we had to sleep in the RV. It's under a roof and shaded by trees so does not get as hot as being in the sun. My guess is even if you had a residential fridge you could still run it, lights, converter and one AC with 30 amps.

We did have 1999 34' DS and never ran both AC's while parked under the carport.

We had friends who kept their 40' Adventure in a storage lot. They had to drag everything into their vehicle then to the RV. Most often it took several trips. Even with the RV only 25 steps from the house it still takes us half the morning to load everything. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Do what you need to do to keep it at home. You will not regret it in the long run. Do the build in stages as suggested.

As far as your lot and what you'll have to do or give up to have your RV at home. Life is about choices. You want the convenience of keeping it close so you can perform maintenance and MODS on your schedule. Walk out and turn on the fridge 1 day before you load it for a trip. Wash and wax it a little at a time. Maybe eventually have it heated so you don't have to winterize it every year. Just keeping it out of the wind extends the time before winterizing.

Here in northern AR I'll add a light bulb in the water area and turn on a couple of electric heaters to extend the time. And the list goes on and on.

Mr_D · 07-24-2018, 06:37 PM

31 years ago the late wife and I bought a place that had room beside the house for a TT. As we traded up I added gravel and a retaining wall till I now have room for my 45' rig. I have 30 amp power but should run 50 amp.
Has saved me $1,000's over years. But I can't cover it due to zoning/setback laws.

W0GEN · 07-24-2018, 06:41 PM

In the parts of the US where coaches are stored during the winter, having 50 Amps to make sure that you can run a couple of space heaters as well as the battery charger and the water tank heater to keep above freezing, we start prepping the coach by adding water, stocking shelves etc. to leave for the south and it can get down to the teens in temp in December.
just saying...

MuddyPaws2 · 07-28-2018, 07:01 PM

We got the parking pretty much figured out. We compromised on where to put it and what needs to be moved or removed.

The coach we wanted has a booth dinette and we want that removed and a breakfast bar put in it's place. The sales person at Lazy Days told us that it would be 'far too' expensive.

That once we lived with the booth we'd love it. We hate those things and were told they were easy to replace. He isn't even willing to work with us.
So we start our search again.

TeJay · 07-28-2018, 08:28 PM

Don't you just love it when a salesmen (women), friend etc, etc tells you what you are going to just LOVE and will eventually want???? Yes with enough time I can get used to a pain in my body but I still don't like it.

We've never liked the booth dinettes and had 5 until this last coach. We have a slide out table and folding hairs which we love. They are awful and not to functional either. I've never slept on one and don't intend on doing so either. I'm to old for that. When we were young we thought we were having fun (and we were) when we slept on an air mattress in a tent. Those days were fun, happy to have lived them and happier to have the comfort today.

Keep on looking and you'll find what you want!!!!

DeeGee · 07-28-2018, 08:35 PM

Don't go to an 'RV' place. Any cabinet maker can do that job, probably for less money.

Matt D · 07-28-2018, 09:00 PM

Angie, Lazy Daze (and virtually any other dealer) will not touch a project like that with a ten foot pole.

They are solely motivate to rotate inventory.

You’ve got to wade through an immense pile of B.S. from any salesman before you get any meaningful results.

The most honest salesperson I know Is Angie Morrell with NIRVC. Yes, they sell clean preowned units.

Regarding renovations to a coach, that sort of thing is quite common and will only cost a fraction of what any dealer would charge you.

-Matt

MuddyPaws2 · 07-29-2018, 07:08 AM

We've been working with Angie for a while now. Dh found a used Aspire that was in our price range at Lazy Days and had been in contact with them about it. As soon as he brought up modifications the sales person got pretty pushy about how much we'd love the coach just the way it was. We tried to explain to him that it was a simple modification and that we had heard the cabinet shop they used did wonderful work, he wasn't hearing any of it.

I WANT to buy from NIRVC and that is why we will keep waiting and looking. We prefer NIRVC over any other place, the coach just has to fit our needs. I want the Entegra because it comes with all the extras we want. Dh has it in his head he wants a shorter coach now (I want the 42DEQ). Since we are traveling with our 2 Great Danes the floorplan is a HUGE deal. It has to have enough space when slides are closed for them to get up on the sofa, get to the bed or to us in the cockpit.

It's funny, we don't want to buy a coach and then trade up in a couple of years. We'd like our coach to be 'our coach' for a long time and we are willing to spend the money for that. I've read so many post where people get a coach but it isn't really what they want and I just don't understand that. When you are spending this amount of money you should get exactly what you want or in the very least super close!

az99 · 07-29-2018, 07:31 AM

If you have that many big trees call a timber guy. The $ you get from the timber should easily pay for the gravel pad. I would never buy another RV if I had to store it away from home. Too many things to do with it to be running back and forth to a storage facility.

I got a 36'x50' pole barn with concrete floor done by the Amish for $35K.

Good Luck

brobox · 07-29-2018, 07:44 AM

It won't take long to recapture the cost of property improvement to keep the coach at home with increased resale value. I pay $3,180 for inside storage per year and have nothing but rent receipts.