Before you buy that RV

BLUF:  Take an RVing course before you buy.

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 birthday).  I was going to work two more years but decided to retire 31 May 2018.  Roxie (I name everything)  sat in storage being prepped until I finally pulled her out in June to take the first trip.  I had driven around a church parking lot when I first picked it up and thought "I got this!" 

My first back in campsite I take out a "hitching post" the park had between the two back to back spaces.  $30 for a new post.  Oh, let me go back, my first time backing into the storage space I pinched and sliced my electric cord in half!  The storage manager rebuilt my cord so I could get out of the driveway and get to the repair shop to have it replaced. ($50)

 Second trip to the Oregon coast in August I cross the Scottsburg bridge (Umpqua highway OR 38).  It says go slow… 25mph.  Well I was down there but the semi headed toward me wasn't.  I don't know if I swerved or it was the wash that swayed me, but I clipped the awning on the side of the bridge and pulled it off.  A kind passerby picked up the pieces I left on the bridge and helped me cut the rest of the fabric off.  I had to leave it on the side of the road since it was too long to put anywhere (sorry highway dept). 

Third trip I get the awning replaced while visiting in Montana by using insurance so just the deductible ($250). On the way home I pull into a Love’s station that was not built for RVs and got my fender caught on the pump protector stanchion.  Yellow streak down the side.  Power switch for stabilizer gone, bumper destroyed, hose carrier destroyed (still trying to get that damage fixed, $1500). 

I pull out of storage for the last time in October to go to my house to pack to go full time.  This is in Portland OR.  I try to plan my route to avoid obstacles but as I make a turn, I hit the curb.  Blown tire so I pull off on a side street and wait for roadside assistance...two hours later they send someone to change a vehicle tire..not an RV tire.  Then I notice that my brand-new awning was sliced to shreds by a street sign and one of the outside speakers is missing.  I get this fixed in GA while visiting my sister and pay for it myself ($900).

Oh, the adventures of RVing.

Sometime in there I learned about the Escapees RV Boot Camp and RV drivers’ courses.  I signed up for both courses for Feb 2019 in Congress AZ, a stop along the way to visit my sisters in GA and attend both the FMCA Rally in Perry and RVillage Rally 2.0 in FL.  I found out about and signed up for the FMCA RV Basic class in Perry...you can never learn too much!

AND BOY DID I LEARN. It was like a fire hose being turned on in Congress.  

Who knew tires had a use by date?  And it isn't just a guideline like those on canned foods, it really means something!  C rating vs D rating vs E rating on tires...oh my. 

Even though they kept saying "purge, purge, purge...get your weight under control" I walked away with a list of 22 items I needed to add to my RV safety kit!

GVWR, GAWR, GCWR, CCC...and I thought the military had a lot of acronyms!

I've done rewiring in a house but never had to calculate amps, watts, volts, etc so I don't kill a battery.

Just pull into the sight and plug in right...NOOOO.  Level?  Just so I don't fall over when walking, right?  NOOOO  Refrigerator might catch on fire and destroy everything. I installed an attachment for the fridge that will shut it off and prevent this.

About 15 pages of notes later...Ok now on to driving class.  

How to set up the mirrors correctly.  What to look for in the mirror when backing into a space, how to line up rear tires.  Driving over a hill properly.  GREAT info...Thanks Tim.  It made me a lot more conscious about how that thing behind me reacts and even when not towing I'm now thinking about towing.

Finally, on to the Escapees weigh station.  OOPS I'm already overweight and haven't added the new items I need!  I'd removed most of my paper craft items from the RV before I left and put it in storage.  That would have been another couple hundred pounds!  For now, shift stuff around to get it more balanced and take it slow.

Whew time to hit the road and digest all that information.  More adventures along the way including a grapefruit size bubble on a trailer tire.  As I stopped at a rest area a true GOOD SAMARITAN followed me in to tell me about it and saved my bacon.  The roadside service guys were expecting a shredded tire and torn up RV which would have happened had it not been for that guy. The importance of weight and tire rating came into play there!

After spending a week in my sister’s driveway purging and putting in the new items, I ordered from Amazon to pick up at her house, I head to Perry and RV Basic.  Yes, it was a lot of the same information but new info also and the repetition helped me understand a lot of it better (tires, weight, propane, safety). 

One thing they did at both classes was ask how many did not have an RV yet and I was surprised at the number of people who raised their hands.  THEY are the smart ones.  I was discussing this blog entry with a neighbor who also has an RV and he said they wish they had taken one before purchasing.

After the tire issue I took their advice and purchased a Tire Pressure Monitor System.  I scoured the SE to find tires that were rated something other than C for the RV.  I finally found a D rated tire (meaning it will carry more weight, has more plys) at a commercial tire store and bought five new tires (over $800) for the TT and put the system on them.

After purging more at my sisters, I head to FL for Rally 2.0.  WHAT FUN!!  As I leave, I get weighed again.  I swear their scales were off (at least one of them was) since one weighed almost 500 lbs more on each wheel than the Escapees stationary scale did.  I still don’t know how good a job I did purging since their weight was 1000 lbs more total!

I then take off across country back to Nevada.  Just west of Clovis NM, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, my tire monitor goes off.  I watch a tire lose air.  All the others are ok.  I stop on the side of the road before it gets below 40 psi and wait 2 hours for roadside assistance.  The young man is surprised that my tire isn’t blown, shredded and/or otherwise destroyed.  He REPAIRS the tire, removing the screw I'd picked up and patching it.  I’ve never had that done on the side of the road, but they deal mainly with big rigs and farm tractors, so he was equipped to do it.  He did not want to put the spare on and leave me with a flat in case something else happened.  I’m still running on that tire over 2000 miles later!

Alright, back to the original question…would I do anything different in choosing my rig?  Maybe.  I love my suburban and having the enclosed cargo space.  I camped (slept) in my old one for years before going RV so it is a security blanket for emergencies.  Maybe I would have looked harder to find a ¾ ton.  My RV isn’t the one I really, really wanted; they had discontinued that model.  But other companies made similar models so I should have looked around more.  It was shorter and lighter so maybe the ½ ton would have been ok.  The understanding of how all the weights work together could have made a lot of difference in my choices.

Bottom line:  If you are thinking about taking up the hobby or lifestyle of RVing take a basic course first.  Not only will it pay for itself it will save you time, money, and headaches.  Take a driving course (unless you know everything there is to know about driving and towing! lol) and you will probably save on your insurance.

https://fmca.com/rv-education-101  (Second one I took)

https://www.escapees.com/education/rvers-boot-camp/   (First one I took)

https://www.rvbasictraining.com/  (don’t know about this one)

https://www.rvschool.com/

https://www.rvschool.com/school-locations/  (Driving school I took)

 
                                                   

It looked like this for about 10 minutes sitting in storage!

Who designed these things anyway?

 (I’m skipping a bunch of stuff that I might write about later like clearing the house and moving into the RV.)

I can’t believe that the RV manufacturers don’t have at least one woman involved in the planning and design of their products.  If they did there would be better organizations options in the storage areas.

My RV has a fairly large amount of storage for the size of it.  But there is nowhere to store anything.  I mean how many items do I have that are 18 inches tall and narrower than 12 inches?  How many of us travel with hanging clothes?  Don’t we mostly wear jeans, shorts, sweats, and t-shirts?  So why do I have two odd shaped “closets” with 14” hanging rods?  Dishes?  Do I stack them 14 inches high?

I have some problems.  Where to put the food and dishes and clothes.

 

Problem 1:  three 18” high, 18” deep and 11” wide areas behind a cupboard door with stuff piled in.  Most of my food was in a plastic bin on the floor or sofa.

Solution:  I wanted to make the shelves adjustable so I could use uprights and shelf brackets but they would be hard to put in without the strong support in the RV structure.  So I decided to use pegboard and pegs.  I started by cutting “sides” out of the pegboard and deciding where I wanted the shelves.  I put 5 pegs across to hold the shelves.  These shelves were Rubbermaid shelves cut to the proper width.  I used different sizes so the shelves could be at different depths for taller items (like the sliding shelf in a refrigerator). Once inside and with the shelves in place the sides stayed up.  But before I could get the shelves in place they would fall over so I put self-stick Velcro of the back and pressed it in place.  Now the cans and packets have a place to reside.  I added button lights to put some light on the

Problem 2: having to use wire stacking units to fit dishes in the cupboard and messy over sink storage. 

Forgot to take a before photo
Trust me it didn't work.

Solution:  Why not do the same thing as inside the “pantry”?  In this case, I didn’t want them to be adjustable so I cut braces to hold the shelves and glued and screwed them in place.  Easy to do for the dishes but the over the sink cabinet was too long and wouldn’t have enough support so I added some cross pieces at the cabinet stiles.  Also, the wide shelf wouldn’t go in because of the close space between the doors and had to be cut so the cross brace holds up the two sections of the bottom shelf.

I had actually removed some items and put them
in the pantry already

Narrow shelf on top so taller items can fit in
front on the middle shelf.  Rarely used items
in the blind corner.

Problem 3:  How to store all the jeans and t-shirts.  Once again pegboard and glued and screwed braces. 

Used hanging "sweater" storage that left the
back third unusable.

Solution:  Since the closets are at the front of the RV they are curved like the front so figuring out the curve was necessary to give the shelves support all the way to the back.  I measured the distance to the back where I wanted the first shelf to be (13” from the top) and the depth was 22”…down 12 inches and the depth was 26”…down another 12 and it was 30 and at the bottom 33”.  It took two runs with the jigsaw to get it right and the left side had to be cut back to account for a ½” support. 

Oh that curve!

I made a boo-boo here by cutting them both right side up instead of back to back so the left side is the back and the right side is the white front.  

I then had to determine the height of each shelf and how many I could put in.  I have some storage “drawers” that are 5” so I made one that height and the others 11”.  There is a 3-inch drop into the closet so I put a shelf at that level and made it split to have “secret” storage.  

I bought a full sheet of melamine and had HD cut it into 14.5” widths that I could cut down to the correct depth.  Since they didn’t have edging on them and the saw left chips in the melamine, I bought white “Duck Tape” and edged them all around to prevent any catching or snagging.  Now I can use the entire closet.  

I need to sort through and take some of the t-shirts out since I only wear the same three or four. 

Cut a few sections off this hanging storage
and put it back in to hold extra clothes.

The second closet I only put one shelf in and use the rest for hanging clothes (I know I said who travels with hanging clothes, but I brought two skirts and nice tops for emergencies).  That one will be used for storing extra linens and off-season clothes since it is so hard to get to and my suitcases live on that side of the bed.

I have some extra materials so I might do some modifications in the bathroom storage which is similar to the pantry but I have baskets in there now that are doing the job just fine.

Trip to see the King

Not Elvis.  Tut.

While I was sitting at work even before I had decided to retire I was listening to the radio station (KFI) out of LA that I like and heard that the King Tut exhibit was in LA and it was the last time it would be allowed out of Egypt (unless they need to make money again).

I immediately googled it and booked a visit.  Yes, I live in Portland OR so how to get to LA, how long to stay?  Answer:  Fly and two nights.

Yes, pay for an airline ticket to fly to LA, rent a car, stay in a motel for two nights and fly back.

WORTH EVERY PENNY.

I had originally planned to take a shuttle to the Vagabond Inn but couldn’t find anything, taxi was too expensive, don’t trust Uber, et.al.  So, I rented a car from with the military discount it was cheap and since I didn’t drive more than 30 miles I didn’t bother to buy gas.  I used maybe a gallon?  They had a shuttle from the airport to their off-site location so it was easy to get there (and back to LAX upon return).

The motel was old but clean.  I’m not a lodging snob all I want to do there is sleep.  The room was very spacious with one clean bed and through Expedia was very inexpensive for LA.

You name the fast food outlet and it was within walking distance along with any ethnic food you could want.  I mean it is adjacent to USC!

I walked up and down the street the first night but opted for the standby McDonald's.  There I encountered my first fast food kiosk for ordering.  Place your order.  Take a number, sit down and they will bring your food.

The next day I got up too late to make my first appointment to see the movie about the discovery of Tuts tomb.  I figured I had probably seen everything on all of the Egyptian documentaries I’ve seen so no big deal (but I did see it later in the day). 

I walked to the Science Center on USC campus, taking a detour through part of the campus on the way.  At the museum, they scan my ticket and give me my guided tour speaker.  You go into an anteroom where there is a presentation on the discovery and once it is over you are allowed into the exhibit.  This is their way of controlling the number of people in the exhibit area at one time.  You are required to put your backpack in front of you so you don’t a) knock into other visitors and b) knock into the exhibit or knock another person into an exhibit. Halfway through my Nikon camera started acting up so I had to switch to my cell phone and some of those photos came out better.  I went through once then turned around and went back to the beginning and went through again.

There are two parts.  The first is almost all of the artifacts and the second is more of the story of how it was discovered and you end up in the gift shop.  There was an Egyptian “ambassador” there selling and autographing books by  Aswari the former antiquities minister.  I listened to him telling a family about the collection and explaining hieroglyphics. 

Amulet that was the first artifact found ...by the kid wearing it 

My next stop was the 3D IMAX movie on the Space Shuttle.  It was very interesting and the 3D really brought it to life.  I was told to just stay in the theater to watch the Egyptian movie after this one was over so I did!  Not a lot of new information as I suspected.

Then it was back into the main part of the museum to see the shuttle.  It is in a separate building located adjacent to and within the Science Center area.  It was actually smaller than I expected.  Outside to see the only remaining external fuel tank and back inside to the shuttle gift shop. 

In the main hall of the center, there were other space exhibits of Apollo capsules (talk about small), satellites and model of the Mars rover.

By this time there are thousands of kids from day camps there so it is time to go.  Outside I buy an ice cream bar from a street vendor and walk to a shady spot overlooking a beautiful rose garden to scarf it down before it melted in the heat…but it was so frozen I almost broke my teeth trying to bite into it.

I walked back to the hotel and stretched out on the bed enjoying the AC and fell asleep.  After a quick nap, I woke up grabbed a chicken sandwich for dinner and returned to the hotel and read.

The next morning I left around 11 to drop off the rental.  I couldn’t believe how crowded the gate area was at LAX.  I don’t think it has been changed since I flew out of there 30+ years ago but there are lots of signs saying there is something new coming soon.  There was no seating but I found a quiet corner next to a kiosk and sat o the floor next to the window to have a power bar.  I was soon joined by three airport employees having their lunch.  After about an hour I got up and found that there were seats near my departure gate and sat for about 20 minutes before boarding.

First time in three returns to PDX that my car hasn’t been covered in snow.  It was rush hour so I took back roads to pick up Oscar at the Rover.com sitter I had left him at in NE Portland. Then home.

A quick but enjoyable trip.  It is nice to be retired and have the time to do what I want to do.

Side trip in Eastern Washington

Before I left Portland I found an iFetch for large dogs on sale in Spokane and told the guy I wanted to buy it.  On the way to Great Falls I forgot all about it.  Before leaving I contacted the guy and he still had it so I arranged to pick it up.  This meant making a trip back to Spokane after arriving at Rimrock.  So on Sunday the dogs and I take off and drive to Spokane to pick it up. 

I had wanted to go to the Grand Coulee Dam while here so I decided to swing north and visit it on the way back.  What a beautiful drive.  This is definitely someplace I will come back to and spend some more time at.

Love having the dash cam.  Not only can I capture anything going on in front of me on the road but I can also reach up and press a button to capture a still.  Lots of these photos were done that way.