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Old 11-21-2021, 06:38 PM   #29
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Wife as remote control

We figured this out years ago in Jeep rock crawling competitions. I had built and driven the Jeep in every kind of terrain imaginable, I knew it capabilities, clearance at every point, approach and departure angles, all of it. Standing outside the Jeep seeing the line and having a pilot that could understand and do the exact control I requested was amazing. You can see things from outside the vehicle that you can’t from inside. We won many competitions and left many of the “boys” pretty miffed. I would do the same in a heartbeat with our MH, it only makes sense.

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Something I have never understood is why the man moves the steering wheel while the woman gives the directions. If you asked the man, he'd say he's a better driver, and the woman might agree. But the person moving the steering wheel is just following directions and not really driving. So it seems to me the person who is more talented at moving the RV through space should be the one giving the directions.

I wonder how much of it has to do with reluctance to give up command of the wheel. Or to take command of it. But really, you could probably train a monkey to follow directions in backing up an RV--the real skill is giving the directions.

I'm afraid that starting out now, when making reservations is almost becoming a necessity, will make it harder on you.

We're now in 19th year of fulltiming. We started back when you never needed reservations, so we were able to just fall into a rhythm that worked for us. I can't imagine how we would have done it if we'd had to plan in advance. All I knew when we left was we wanted to be in the Los Angeles area in about a month, and it turned out we spent three weeks of that catting around Tucson, which I never would have anticipated.

I haven't been traveling much because of Covid, but if it's at all possible, I'd suggest that you try to plan as little as possible, to give you a better chance of finding out what style of travel you enjoy.

I'm questioning your numbers.

I have a 4-door Norcold 1200LR refrigerator. It has two 225-watt heaters (450 watts total). If the Norcold ran 24/7, it would use about 10 kwh of electricity a day, or 300 kwh/month. For that to equal $91/month in electricity, the electricity would have to be 30 cents/kwh, which is unusually high. And, the refer would have to be running 24/7, which happens only in the hottest weather. And in weather that makes a Norcold run 24/7, you'd have to be using air conditioning

But if $91 of your electric bill was due to the refrigerator, the remaining $29 is for about 3 kwh/day (at 30 cents/kwh), which wouldn't allow for any air conditioning.

No doubt an absorption refrigerator uses a lot more electricity than a residential, but in general terms, the absorption one usually uses about 7 kwh/day, and a residential uses about 1.5 kwh/day.

And if your residential unit uses 1.5 kwh/day (although that's what they're rated for--real life is probably more like 2 kwh/day), that leaves only 1.5 kwh/day for everything else in your RV. My parasitic loads are more than that and my electric water heater is a LOT more than that.
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Old 11-21-2021, 06:49 PM   #30
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oatmeal, I am seeing it, and still working on believing it, but 2 months of electric bills and waiting on third this month. If that bill too is only $29 -$35 too then this in not a trend.

This also includes the LG 4.5 cuft washer dryer doing 5 loads a week.

I believe the propane fridge efficiency #'s are severally inaccurate. Grossly inaccurate.

That Norcold is "the" biggest power hog on the rig. ( I owned the biggest one)

I am fine with both of us putting "watts" meters on both appliances, and let the chips fall where they may.

I have my meter.

This is also Samsung's newest RF-18 2021 model.

I am paying 12 cents a KW HR, and yes these appliances are this efficient. And the fridge is cold no matter outside temp, and no humidity dripping on everything in it.

Death to the Norcold/Dometic propane fridge, if they were smart companies they would kill the 50 year old design themselves and run with Samsung compressors. (the size of a grapefruit)

Gas hot water
Gas Heat
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Old 11-21-2021, 07:03 PM   #31
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I did not read every post on this thread, so if my comments repeat what someone else said, well .... ok.

Regarding the OP's first comment.... the couple you are referring to are probably not burned out with RVing, they are probably really burned out on doing the daily blog. When camping and travel IS your job, it's far different than enjoying life on the road with no strings attached.

You stated you are soon to retire. So you truly understand what it is like on the job to daily "produce" whatever it is you do. If that be grinding out 2000 watch-ya-ma-call-its, or a video blog every day, or testing a specific number of verification points, or writing so many new lines of computer code .... it's work. Work has it's own pressures, and when travel IS your work, it truly taints the joy of the travel and wears you down.

Those of us who travel, full timing, working from the camper, where travel is NOT the job, will most likely NOT burn out enjoying the vagabond transient life style. Health reasons, financial set-backs, or family demands are mostly the reason folks depart full timing and give it up, not because of burn out.

I'm soon to retire also .... Actually, December 31 was my original end date. That got changed (not by my choice) to December 8, so I picked up the pace a bit. Now my impending ... you comply with the company's dictates or you walk .... have been moved to January 4. I'm sticking with my original Dec 31 date.

We traveled a LOT this year. We both worked from camper as both of us are in IT (Information Technology) and our respective companies told us to leave the building, so we took it on the road this year. It was a fantastic year. Our son lives in our house and was home to take care of it. So, we were free to travel, almost all this entire year.... which we did.

Burnout from RVing or camping? Nah. I don't believe that. Burnout from your employment! Yes ... absolutely!
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Old 11-21-2021, 08:48 PM   #32
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Many Advance Auto Parts have become UPS Access Points; you can receive or ship via UPS. No pack'n'ship but it's handy to receive Amazon.
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Old 11-22-2021, 08:07 AM   #33
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Very good points ...

My dad was an auto mechanic so I grew up having to assist him and I hated to work on cars because working with him, it was like a job. But I saw neighbors that worked on their muscle cars for fun and thought they were nuts.

I eventually came to realize this precept:
- if you have to do something then it feels like work
- if you want to do something then it feels like fun

Based on your comments I see that this precept applies here.

Thanks for your comments.
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Old 11-22-2021, 10:10 AM   #34
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Old 11-22-2021, 11:15 AM   #35
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trx430ex View Post
I believe the propane fridge efficiency #'s are severally inaccurate. Grossly inaccurate.
But we're not even considering the efficiency. In doing the math I'm assuming (as a worst case scenario) that the Norcold is running 24 hours a day and not cycling on and off. The heaters on it total 450 watts. 450 watts x 24 hours = 10,800 watt hours, or 10.8 kilowatt hours, which I round to 10 kwh.


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Originally Posted by trx430ex View Post
I am paying 12 cents a KW HR
You said your electric bill has gone from $120/month to $29/month after replacing your refrigerator. That's a difference of $91, which at 12 cents per kwh would be 750 kilowatt hours over the course of a month, which you're saying is just for the Norcold refrigerator. That's impossible.

The 750 kwh in a month is 25 kwh per day. In order for an appliance to use that much, it would have to be running at 1000 watts for 24 hours a day, but the maximum the Norcold can use is 450 watts. So it's physically impossible for the Norcold to have accounted for all of the difference in your electric bill.


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Death to the Norcold/Dometic propane fridge, if they were smart companies they would kill the 50 year old design themselves and run with Samsung compressors. (the size of a grapefruit)
I think they're smart companies by continuing to offer a propane alternative to people who want it. I don't love how much electricity it uses compared to a residential unit, but I do like having the ability to operate it on propane.
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Old 11-22-2021, 12:50 PM   #36
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Well Said Jim!! We have been full-timing now for over 2 years and still LOVE it!! We plan ahead of course and we try to go back home and see our Daughter ( in Co. ) and Son in Alabama @ friends back IN Denver Co. We first talk about what we want to do then the planning starts. Safe Travels Jim and have fun on the way!!
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Old 11-24-2021, 02:59 AM   #37
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Retirement is looming for us as well - Hubs is done on 12/31, I'm done in July. We are having trouble planning a 2 week trip in May lol.



We are struggling a bit with what a balance is for retirement. What is a good travel per day time? How to shift from 'vacation' to longer term travel.



I'm interested in the responses you get for this question!
There are those with and without agendas. We did were agenda free about 80% of the time. The other 20% required RV Parking reservations.

Our normal travel days were 200-300 miles. At the 200 mile mark we stated looking for a place to park. We never dry park or use large public parking lots.

Because we meander we may stay some places much longer than others because of surprise attractions.

Sometimes we stay at state parks as long as three weeks because of their amenities. The Natchez Trace Park in the picture below was one of them.

We both retired early and burned our bridges by selling our home and almost everything in it that the kids didn't have any use for.

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Old 11-24-2021, 03:22 AM   #38
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For us, we knew in advance we were going to do it. We had been a Navy family for more than 30 years and were used to picking up and moving, sometimes going from coast to coast. Now it was time to see America, all of it.

We knew we were going to be high mileage RVers and the thought of having to put our home into service bays for more than a day was just not going to work. So; we opted for a 38' 5th wheel and a Cummins powered dually truck to haul it. We didn't want heavy, so we opted for a midlevel one with a winter package and W/D.

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Old 11-24-2021, 04:53 AM   #39
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The OP's first post and some later posts remind me of a rule of life I discovered in my teens, when I worked at a marina/sailing school in the summers:

"Don't work at what other people vacation at."

I realize that's weird English, but you get the idea.
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Old 11-24-2021, 04:55 AM   #40
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oatmeal
...but the maximum the Norcold can use is 450 watts. So it's physically impossible for the Norcold to have accounted for all of the difference in your electric bill.

This may be getting somewhat off-topic except where it concerns utility costs. The person said he had the largest Norcold. That would be their Polar 18: https://norcold.com/product/norcold-...-refrigerator/

The very bottom of the specs says it can use 6.6 amps at 120 VAC or 800 watts, not 450 watts. My little Norcold 1210 does use 450 watts, though.

It might be time to let this bit of thread drift go. The other person is paying the electric bill, not us.

Ray
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Old 11-28-2021, 08:38 AM   #41
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I'm soon to retire also .... Actually, December 31 was my original end date. That got changed (not by my choice) to December 8, so I picked up the pace a bit. Now my impending ... you comply with the company's dictates or you walk .... have been moved to January 4. I'm sticking with my original Dec 31 date.
This scenario sounds very familiar, especially the dates. We may work for the same company, with the same mandates. Besides the date, I hope your retirement is on your terms and provides a fantastic next chapter of life. You aee certianly well prepared for FT life.
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Old 11-28-2021, 06:01 PM   #42
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Quote:
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The very bottom of the specs says it can use 6.6 amps at 120 VAC or 800 watts, not 450 watts. My little Norcold 1210 does use 450 watts, though.

It might be time to let this bit of thread drift go. The other person is paying the electric bill, not us.

Ray
It was the 11 cuFt model 2008.

The point I was trying to get across (so excitedly) is that residential fridges like the Samsung RF-18 have gotten so efficient. That they are rendering Norcolds 50 year design obsolete.

Also, using so little power that it could be run on an micro inverter on the road.

The biggest advantage is that it stays at 36 degrees no matter if it is 105 degrees out. It does not sweat in the summer and drip water all over your food.

The propane fridge is like an old tube TV, compared to a flat panel TV. The design is just not efficient enough even on propane to justify how much you don't get. VS the Samsung RF-18.

Just one 250 watt solar panel on the roof would be plenty to cover the energy use of the residential fridge if one were boondocking for months at a time.

Me, I'm on a 50 amp pedestal 98% of the time, but that electric drop was a big wow.
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