We just got back from a whirlwind trip to California in the MH to visit my parents. Left from Eastern NM on the 5th, late in the PM, and didn't get but to Ruidoso the first night. We boondocked at the Walmart there, and even though the temps got down into the 20's, we were comfy and the Lithium batteries performed great. No issues. Still had about 12.6VDC in them when I got up. One issue we had, however, was that using the microwave, on 2 occasions, the 250VDC breaker would pop, even though the...

RV Basic courses are a MUST have for new RVers.

I didn't know this before I purchased my RV. If I had taken one when I started planning for my retirement 4 years ago I might have made some different decisions. I had towed before so I thought "No problem! Buy a 1/2 ton vehicle (Suburban in my case), get a trailer and hit the road." Right? Isn't that what you think?

BOY is there a lot more to it than that!

I bought in Oct 2017 (my 60th...

After flying up to Lakeview OH, we took possession of the motorhome.

I'm going to tackle the biggest issue of the whole experience right off the bat. The biggest issue was discovering, after getting on site, that our coach was built on an E-350 chassis. When all issues then and now are listed, it was the largest and it's one that RVW & Forest River both indicate that is a right reserved by Forest River to change the design of the RV at their discretion. So, here's the biggest...

Our electric entry steps were looking bad, with visible rust spots and paint blistering.

So - time to strip it and repaint it.

Pulling it off the coach is fairly simple - unplug the wiring and ground wire, and then remove four bolts. I had the steps extended for this to give access to the bolts, and used a bottle jack to hold it in place as I removed them.

At home I removed the clevis pin that attaches the motor pivot arm to the stairs, and then removed...

My wife and I are in the preparation stage of becoming full-time nomads. We plan on staying mostly in State Parks, National Forest, Corp Of Engineer, and some Bureau of land management spots. We will have solar power and possibly a generator if we find that we need it.

We want to Boondock as much as possible but not really interested in parking out in the wilderness. So actually we would be more “dry camping
” that is to say staying on a level improved spot. I recently discovered...

For the travel trailer and 5th wheel, we had a Progressive Industries 30amp EMS system that plugged in at the power pillar. For the Allegro, I wanted a fixed unit that mounted inside the coach.

The PI unit had worked very well for us, so I went with PI again, this time their EMSHW50C 50amp EMS system. They're pricey (~$500) but that's pretty good insurance to keep your rig from frying due to poor wiring at some campsite.

One nice feature of this unit is the remote...

The side/rear view camera system on Big Al was bad when we bought it. The black and white system was fuzzy. Fiddling with the contrast improved it, but...it was still not good.

Tiffin had the parts to upgrade - a 7" LCD, two side and a rear camera - that used the existing wire cabling. Unfortunately, the Triplevision CC45 side cameras didn't work well with the LCD, and had a really grainy low res image.

I sent them back and picked up some nice (and less expensive)...

Some of the better pics taken on the trip - Link to Flickr.

The route we took for the trip. I use RVTripWizard for route planning and looking for stops. I've been a subscriber since they came out many years ago.

I-20 sucks over near Midland/Odessa/Monahans. Too many oil trucks, not enough repairs. The same goes for Hwy 18 from Monahans down to Ft. Stockton.

US 90 in south Texas was wonderful - few people on it, pretty straight.

Yes, I could have taken 90 out to San...

We had a great stay down at Maverick Ranch RV Resort in Lajitas, TX. It's conveniently located between Big Bend NP and Big Bend Ranch SP. It's also a much better RV park than the on in BBNP. The park was maybe a quarter full, and unless you were with friends they kept everyone spaced out (I kinda remember them doing that on our last visit 10 years ago, so maybe it's normal policy). Lots of amenities, including a wonderful pool. (We didn't use this time due to Covid, but the wife was looking...

Good afternoon RV'ers! A while back, when I first joined this forum, I promised that I would do a report on our experience with RVW and expose the good, the bad and the ugly. So, allow me to create this blog so as to help anyone out there whether purchasing out of state is worthwhile, as well as the in's and out's of doing so.

A little background...

We originally camped with a 27' Starcraft travel trailer. It was a good little unit. Behaved itself and had relatively...

After buying the Allegro in late June, we did a couple of weekend trips in July and August.

It’s now September and we’re on our first long trip - 8 days, 1200 miles. Austin’s to Monahans Sandhills State Park, down to Maverick RV Resort between Big Bend National and State Parks, and then heading home with a stop at Kickapoo Caverns State Park.

First leg of the trip went well enough. Avoided interstates by taking Texas highways out to Midland, and then hopped on I-20...

We're Mike and Kat, and we go by Redwolf Journeys.

We bought our first RV 20 years ago in 2000 - a Coleman (Fleetwood) Utah popup. Bought it used and sold it 6 years later for the same price we paid for it.

in '06 we bought our second RV - a new Jayco 28FKS, which required a truck upgrade to pull it. 1200 lbs empty on the hitch, because the kitchen was in front. We traded in our '98 Ram V8 for an '02 Ram 2500 diesel.

In March of 2014 we got caught...

The shop was able to get her cranked up and pulled into the shop (Phillips Auto Group). They’re looking her over now. But the service guy did mention it could take them until next week to look it over. I just miss her and ready to go on to the next steps of restoring her. Trying my best to be patient

Should I repaint it the same color? What do you think about all the blue lines being pink and the background white?