2 lurkers deciding to step out in faith

[exploring]

Originally Posted by steved44

Eric & Brittany, welcome to the group, also thank you for your service to our country. I was an air force puke myself!

Tiffin has four grades of diesel pushers. The Red, Phaeton, Bus and Zephyr. We like the bus because it has an independent front suspension, smart wheel (cruise control and wipers on the wheel), aqua-hot (diesel on demand furnace and hot water), larger engine (400 Cummins).

Also because of the support Tiffin has given to owners even if we had no warranty. They are still in business, and are a great source of parts and information.

We are currently using a Verizon mifi for our internet and although it does have 4G speeds in those areas, we are not in a good reception area right now so we are a little frustrated right now. The good thing is we have wheels A lot of people are using mellinicom (sp) which transmits from Verizon towers, but seems to be a little better deal moneywise.

Again welcome to the group, and hope we get to see you on the road someday. Steve

ps: another good group to check out is escapees.com

Steve,

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your insight. Also thank YOU for your service! I've really been leaning toward Tiffin and every time I hear a Tiffin owner, they are raving about the customer service that Tiffin provides. Brittany is leaning toward Newmar and after looking at a few units, I too am starting to lean that way because of the layout. But Tiffin owners really pull me back in that direction.

Brittany wants to know in your 4 years how has your Internet coverage been? Have you stayed in State/National Parks and if so how has the coverage been there? Do you have any insight on what the BEST way to get non-stop (well as much as possible) high speed Internet on the road is? We really need to have as much coverage and as fast as possible. We can't be going to the nearest Starbucks to Yellowstone if you know what I mean.

We'd really appreciate some insight there! Also God-willing we look forward to seeing you out on the road too!

E&B

[exploring]

Originally Posted by djenkins452

Eric and Brittany,

First of all, Welcome! I am also very new to this board, so much I haven't even introduced myself yet because I am waiting to take ownership of the MH I just purchases.

Anyway, I was curious of the technology you are considering for your internet. My wife and I both have opportunities to work from home (wife full time, me part). Need a good solution. We have the MiFi card, but we are eating up the gigs in a hurry.

Thoughts?

DJenkins, Welcome to the board. I feel a bit awkward welcoming you since I'm so new myself. But welcome nonetheless.

This question you present is the one thing that has really been holding Brittany and I back from taking this leap. We work exclusively online so for us Internet connectivity is a necessity.

We've heard of a Sat systems that range from $7,500 to $5,000 installed. Sounds like you need to have a clear view of the Southern Sky from wherever your rig is. We've also been looking at a Verizon Jetpack, but again, like you we eat gigs for breakfast lunch and dinner.

So the short answer is we haven't found the solution. But we are all ears.

We're hoping someone from this forum is an Internet connectivity guru and will come to our rescue.

If I find anything that seems like a solution I'll message you. Meanwhile if you find anything please keep us posted too!

E&B

[SherrRv]

Good luck on your search! Welcome

[exploring]

Thank you SherrRV appreciate the welcome.

[steved44]

We had that satellite, its called a motosat and it did cost $5000 when we had it installed back in June of "08". We could get internet anywhere as long as we weren't blocked by trees. Seeing it wasn't dependent on cell phone towers we had internet out in the desert when we were boondocking. Down side was sloooooww and a large lag in the signal because of the transmission distance to the satellite and back. $79 per month, and we had a small band width allowance. It was a rolling thing, and if we exceeded the limit within a 24 hour period, it would not bill us extra, it would cut us back to virtually no speed at all for the next 24 hours. DW is a photographer by trade and we were always sending picture files to the lab or to customers and it was a struggle. Finally last year it fried an amplifier and we couldn't get it fixed up in the north east where we were at the time, so we changed to the Verizon. Much faster, and works going down the road which the satellite system would not. This unit from Verizon will accept an auxiliary antenna and that should work in most places. We have a number of friends with the extra antenna and they said it helps quite a bit in fringe areas. We are in a bad reception area right now, but we had to do a big order the other day and we drove 3 miles and got a 4G signal with 5 bars and we zipped the order out. Helps if you can move your house. DW is using a pc, so we couldn't just take the MIFI and laptop and head out in the truck. Motosat has restructured now and I'm not sure what they are doing, but it got us through in the beginning. We may still get the Wilson trucker antenna, if we have more trouble, but we'll be moving west in a couple of weeks, so we'll see what happens. Steve

[JohnBoyToo]

Welcome as well from DFW ---

even though most north Texans are not fond of some of the things going on in Austin, we'll still welcome you

A nice weekend ride might be to these guys Texas RV Dealer, Used RVs for sale, motorhome sales, new RVs they have 100's of mh's and are taking trades every day - we've gone down there at least 4 times with out of town friends and for ourselves, but having a NICE Texas sized truck, we decided to go with a large 5th wheel instead of a motorhome...

And right next door to them is http://www.ancirarv.com/

We regularly camp with friends that have MH's so we won't hold that against you let's see, one has a 40+ foot phaeton, another has a 35? ft journey, another has a 40 foot 5er....

good luck to you and since we're so close to mhs, give us a shout and we may meet you there if nothing else to ride around in their free to use golf carts

http://www.rvliquidation.com

[Penster]

Originally Posted by exploring

Thanks Penster! When we first started looking for full time rigs we were looking at Class C's. After talking with a lot of folks and hearing differing opinions we decided to switch to Class A.

We've heard that many folks full time in a Class C and are very happy doing it, but after all of our research for our tastes I think we've narrowed it down to Class A DP. Though we just saw the "Crossover" by Forest River and thought that was an interesting concept. Of course that led to research on the ACE and Palazzo (I think it was called) But all in all I think we're still stuck on a Class A DP.

Thoughts?

I think the most important thing is floor plan. We are not full timers but are looking towards the future where we can spend more time in our rv. We knew what the "must haves" were, and the "it sure would be nice to haves" and just kept looking. Found this floor plan three years ago and never found another one we liked better.

You have some special needs due to your jobs, so that would need to be accommodated. Remember you can do modifications too that will make your new home the perfect one for you....ie take out an extra sofa and install your computer workstation.

Happy hunting!

["007"]

Welcome Eric & Britanny to irv2.
In the Newmar forum in QT's # 3 there are four members traveling in their new 2013 DSDP's that maybe of interest to you in deciding what you want, they are all on the road and experiencing the travels you mentioned.
Good luck in what ever you decide.

[bdickson]

Originally Posted by JohnBoyToo

A nice weekend ride might be to these guys Texas RV Dealer, Used RVs for sale, motorhome sales, new RVs they have 100's of mh's and are taking trades every day

I'd second that vote for Motor Home Specialist. We have bought two coaches from them and are very happy with their prices and general level of service.

[Medico]

Welcome and glad to meet you!

[exploring]

Originally Posted by djenkins452

Eric and Brittany,

First of all, Welcome! I am also very new to this board, so much I haven't even introduced myself yet because I am waiting to take ownership of the MH I just purchases.

Anyway, I was curious of the technology you are considering for your internet. My wife and I both have opportunities to work from home (wife full time, me part). Need a good solution. We have the MiFi card, but we are eating up the gigs in a hurry.

Thoughts?

Danny and Heather,

I just posted this in the technology section of the forums. Hope this is helpful

I'm right there with you. We've been doing a lot of research. My wife Brittany and I work online full time.. but we want to FULLTIME RV. So we've been on a search.

Here is my understanding from the research I've done.

Satellite systems installed range from $5000 on up. They are slow as dialup and only work when you are stationary. You must also have a clear view of the southern sky and it costs around $80 a month for service. Not sure how many gigs but it's not really an option for us.

Tripod satellite systems are much cheaper but must be aligned manually and supposedly they are supposed to charge you a set up fee each time you change locations but from what I understand they don't enforce that... but it is in the contract. Not sure on this so use caution. Ultimately same deal, slow speeds and southern sky clear view required. Again not an option for us.

Then you have the wifi/mifi option. For $130 a month or so you can get 20gigs of data from Verizon on their 3G/4G nationwide network with a Jetpack that can handle multiple devices. So far the only option that I've seen that could handle the type of connectivity we need.

That equates to roughly 400 webpages per day, 20 text only emails per day, 50 photo uploads/downloads (could be more or less depending on resolution) no streaming video, no streaming music, no voip and no online gaming included in this calculation.

From there it is about $10 more per 2 gigs you want to add to that. So for us needing around 30 gigs per day for a solid day of work and 20 for a minimal day of work, we're looking at a plan for around $180 per month. I've also heard that there are some good booster antenna out there that you can add to your rig. Haven't even started looking at those.

Hope that is helpful. I'm still researching. I'm interested to hear what you find.

Eric

[exploring]

Originally Posted by JohnBoyToo

Welcome as well from DFW ---

even though most north Texans are not fond of some of the things going on in Austin, we'll still welcome you

A nice weekend ride might be to these guys Texas RV Dealer, Used RVs for sale, motorhome sales, new RVs they have 100's of mh's and are taking trades every day - we've gone down there at least 4 times with out of town friends and for ourselves, but having a NICE Texas sized truck, we decided to go with a large 5th wheel instead of a motorhome...

And right next door to them is Texas Motorhome Dealer - New and Used RVs for Sale in TX - Ancira RV

We regularly camp with friends that have MH's so we won't hold that against you let's see, one has a 40+ foot phaeton, another has a 35? ft journey, another has a 40 foot 5er....

good luck to you and since we're so close to mhs, give us a shout and we may meet you there if nothing else to ride around in their free to use golf carts

Discounted RVs - Thounsands off Kelly blue book and NADA RV prices - RVLiquidation.com

JohnBoyToo,

Thanks for the tip. Checked out their website and we're definitely looking to take a gander around there. Would love to have an unofficial tour guide from someone who knows their way around an RV and what to look for. I might just take you up on the offer.. if nothing else we could just ride around on the golf carts all day.

Thanks!

[exploring]

Good to know Bruce, thanks for the testimonial about your experience with them.

[exploring]

Thanks Medico, glad to be here!