The all encompassing RV thread

[horn4life 3749]

gotta go out tomorrow and look the girl over.  Decided to pop down to Port A, and need to do a little maintenance before I go.  Mainly make sure nothing is fubar, then get her to the house for a roof inspection.  I guess the first roof "inspection" will be looking inside tomorrow, with all the rain we got. But need to do a real inspection and reseal, as with this winters cold and the future brutality of the coming heat, gotta take care of business.

Here's fingers crossed for some decent weather in Port A.  And hopefully some decent fishing.    

[horn4life 3749]

Damn - glad as shit I called to add a day to my reservation at I.B. MaGee, they only had me down for Saturday night.  That's a lesson for me, I am always going to call back and confirm after a day or two.  I would have been extremely pissed to not have a spot, and NOT have brought down my generator... because I thought I had a spot. 😬

So word to the wise... you might check any reservations IF you made them verbally.

[CHIEF 5045]

Here is my meager contribution. Needed a new huntin' trailer. A lot better than those rat infested POS trailers my Dad would buy for $3500 every couple of years that we stayed in before they became unlivable. The truck is kinda overkill.

CHIEF Jr.'s bunks, gonna have to get good mattresses.

My bed, previous owners even sprung for a Sealy Posturepedic:

 

Mrs. CHIEF will find out once she drives up, gonna be a shitshow for 30 minutes.

CHIEF

Edited May 4, 2021 by CHIEF
shitshow is one word

[troph 24028]

Lotta good memories gonna be had with that, starting with the fight you’re about to have. 

[troph 24028]

18 hours ago, horn4life said:

Damn - glad as shit I called to add a day to my reservation at I.B. MaGee, they only had me down for Saturday night.  That's a lesson for me, I am always going to call back and confirm after a day or two.  I would have been extremely pissed to not have a spot, and NOT have brought down my generator... because I thought I had a spot. 😬

So word to the wise... you might check any reservations IF you made them verbally.

Not my role in the division of responsibilities and when I ask for a double check I get met with that look. We’ve had to move before. Not fun.

[CHIEF 5045]

9 hours ago, troph said:

Lotta good memories gonna be had with that, starting with the fight you’re about to have. 

Well, it didn't go bad at all. I just channeled my inner Kramer:

 

Used the same tactic on a new Polaris Ranger last week.

CHIEF

[davidg 4015]

14 hours ago, CHIEF said:

Mrs. CHIEF will find out once she drives up, gonna be a shitshow for 30 minutes.

 

Just hang this on the doorknob and invite her in to test the posturepedic and you should be good to go. 

 

 

[thunderlounge 7642]

Got a cold call yesterday from one of the dealers I had worked with last fall. 
 

Small consideration being taken through it’s paces on a smaller, used TT to use in the interim before putting together a 5th wheel in a few years. 
 

May or may not be anything, but won’t hurt to look. 

[cabowabo 4390]

I've been wanting to take the motorhome to the Big Bend area/Alpine, preferably during the winter or spring, but that's hard to do with the kids in school.  Anyone ever done any RV camping there in the summer?  Am I crazy for even considering this?  And my idea of "camping" would be in a RV park hooked up to 50 amp power.  I won't be doing any boondocking there in the summer.  

Edited May 6, 2021 by cabowabo

[Pato del Muerto 52117]

Chief getting it done over here...except you didn’t buy a toy hauler to take the ranger with. 

[CHIEF 5045]

45 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Chief getting it done over here...except you didn’t buy a toy hauler to take the ranger with. 

I've got a 12 foot flatbed. Will probably go in two trucks a couple of times and leave the Ranger at the lease in November and December. That's gonna suck since it is my main transportation in our subdivision. A toy hauler would have also broke my $20k barrier. I looked for a Forest River Work n Play 20LT, they made them back in the mid-2000s. They were completely open with a bathroom and kitchenette in the front. They were open for about 17 feet.

CHIEF

[davidg 4015]

2 hours ago, cabowabo said:

I've been wanting to take the motorhome to the Big Bend area/Alpine, preferably during the winter or spring, but that's hard to do with the kids in school.  Anyone ever done any RV camping there in the summer?  Am I crazy for even considering this?  And my idea of "camping" would be in a RV park hooked up to 50 amp power.  I won't be doing any boondocking there in the summer.  

I don’t think any of the campgrounds in BBNP or the state park have hookups.   There are a several RV campgrounds outside the park in SB/Ter but haven’t ever stayed at any of them.  That whole area is an Oct-April destination IMO.  Hit Colorado, the Frio or the beach in the summer.

[troph 24028]

4 hours ago, davidg said:

I don’t think any of the campgrounds in BBNP or the state park have hookups.   There are a several RV campgrounds outside the park in SB/Ter but haven’t ever stayed at any of them.  That whole area is an Oct-April destination IMO.  Hit Colorado, the Frio or the beach in the summer.

Agreed 100%.

[davidg 4015]

This is pretty awesome if you are boondocking at places with a lot of other campers around.

[utee94 15722]

That's cold-blooded, man!

[CHIEF 5045]

30 minutes ago, davidg said:

This is pretty awesome if you are boondocking at places with a lot of other campers around.

I'm trying to figure out the point. Is it to make other campers jealous or envious that you have the only available hookup? Does it tie up their time looking for other spots with hookups? Seems like wasted time and money. Help a brutha out.

CHIEF

[capnamerca 501]

anyone in the market for a sway control hitch? my old equal-i-zer 4-point (600lbs model) is available. Detail on FB marketplace - https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/495921945096038/. hitch in Austin, happy to deliver a short distance.

[davidg 4015]

31 minutes ago, CHIEF said:

I'm trying to figure out the point. Is it to make other campers jealous or envious that you have the only available hookup? Does it tie up their time looking for other spots with hookups? Seems like wasted time and money. Help a brutha out.

CHIEF

Just a practical joke to mess with someone.  "You gotta be a platinum member and sign up early to get one of the sites with hook-ups"

[texhorn 351]

This is pretty awesome if you are boondocking at places with a lot of other campers around.

Just missing a beer tap handle

[horn4life 3749]

So... anyplace in Austin with large car wash bays I can pull my trailer through?  I need a place I can just drive through and spray off the salt and grit from the coast.  I usually I always washed it at the house with the power washer, and a ladder.  But a large bay drive through is now on my needs list.  I am in NW Austin but store my rig out off. My rig is not super wide, so an oversize bay with good height would likely work if I have to pull through.  

 

This weekend-

Took the rig to the coast and so far so good.  Almost made a monumental fuck up though.  A lot of the time we roll in, get the AC and fridge working do some minor unloading and then go out to eat or the beach.  So oftentimes I do not hook up the sewer line until the next day.  Usually after I come home from fishing.  Well the wife decides to wake up with me and head to the beach around dawn and we hang there until just after noon.  On the way back, I tell her, I will open the grey water line and she can take as long a shower as she would like if she wants me to.  I am half drunk and tired when we come back in and she starts to shower.  I am just happy to be in A/C and getting a fresh beverage.  Then I hear a gurgling in the kitchen sink... then I hear it again... I go from relaxed to "oh shit!" in about 2 seconds.  Burst into the bathroom where the wife has her head lathered in soap (no pics) and I am screaming cut off the shower!  I was probably about 30 seconds from overflowing the grey water out of the shower pan.

I leap into action pronto and in about 4 minutes have the sewer line connected and release the grey valve and all is well.  Wife not to fucking happy, but me nearly ecstatic that I did not go out and fuck with my fishing rods which I nearly did.  Anyhow I need to educate her more rather than relying fully on me.  Like check the sensors on the tanks before taking a longer shower. Or have me pull the plug and she can shower for as long as she wants with no concerns.  But damn, nearly shit the bed on this one!   Not as exciting as tearing the top off on a low overpass, but could have been enough to fuck up the trailer and ruin the vibe permanently for wife.  Or at least for the weekend.  Only weird thing was that the black water sensors were showing 3/4 full almost instantly but were nowhere near close.  Did a good flush and got all the sensors clean (i guess).

Other than that another great weekend, but we are missing the complete remote situation for the wife.  I think next trip will be a boondock test run.

[utee94 15722]

Sensors foul up pretty easily, after a while you just get a good feeling for the number of days you can go on your black, gray, and fresh water tanks, based on your family's size and usage habits.

I've taken my RV to a car wash with a large bay on 1431 near Anderson Mill.  Don't remember it's name right now.

 

 

[Hawndoh 2363]

My black tank sensor just permanently shows full even if I've just dumped tanks.

[utee94 15722]

10 minutes ago, Hawndoh said:

My black tank sensor just permanently shows full even if I've just dumped tanks.

There are ways to clean out your tank and it probably will fix that, or you can pay an RV service tech to do it for you.  

I've also sometimes had luck with loading a few bags of ice down through the turlet and into the black tank, and then some water, and driving around to let it slosh and scrape the insides, then dumping.

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

On 5/6/2021 at 6:44 PM, davidg said:

I don’t think any of the campgrounds in BBNP or the state park have hookups.   There are a several RV campgrounds outside the park in SB/Ter but haven’t ever stayed at any of them.  That whole area is an Oct-April destination IMO.  Hit Colorado, the Frio or the beach in the summer.

There is full hookups in RGV but it’sa glorified parking lot.  Actually I’m not sure it’s open in the summer because it’s really really hot.

[davidg 4015]

We've had better luck in cleaning the black tank after driving around a while.  We have a dump at our storage facility and when we have boondocked we come back and dump there.  Seems like it gets stirred up and everthing cleans out well compared to leaving a state park and drive 100 yards to the section dump station.  Last state park trip we drove around the place looking at other sites for a bit before we went to dump.  A lot of forums and groups have posts about people prepping their tanks with dawn dishwashing soap and calgon liquid water softener.  I'm sure you can google to find info on exactly what others are using.

[fattyflattie 4633]

We couldn’t get ours fixed to show anything under 2/3 for the first few months. So I bought one of those wands. 15 mins later and it’s worked perfect since.  Took time doing it and was not messy at all.  Highly recommend.  

[The Royal We 3051]

What a shitty conversation this turned into.

[davidg 4015]

What a shitty conversation this turned into.

It’s like the No 2 topic RVer’s talk about.

[horn4life 3749]

Yeah I didn't initially trust ANY of the sensors.  Simply as having ANY sort of overflow is a complete FUBAR.   We usually are not coming remotely close to filling up the black on a longer weekend.  This is probably the foundation of the problems with the sensor.  I just used the flush to fill the black tank back up and pulled the drain a second time and everything was good on the sensors after that.  Nothing better than shining a flashlight down the toilet to know exactly what the real levels are. My main interest was how much capacity was actually remaining after hitting the "full" sensor.  

I think next trip I may try and do a Nascar timed sewer line breakdown.   The bottom line is we are going to take a dump the day we are leaving.  And this is one of the unnecessarily time consuming aspects of breaking camp.  I spend a fair amount of time with my foot on the toilet water flush trying to fill up the black tank. We do fill up the grey water tank at least once, and topping it off to get a good flush on the sewer line is also important to me.  I think it may be that I just do a tank dump the night before and refill the tank back up to the 3/4 with the built in flush.  Then whatever the departure morning brings is a tiny turd on top of a ton of water from the flush.  Then just pull the sewer drain with the flush on, then empty the full grey water, drop in the additives, and hit the road.

The beach is a bit more of a hassle because there is always some degree of sand accumulation on the slide out that needs to be hosed off. And with the high winds we had last weekend there was grit on basically every exposed surface.  I may put a stopwatch on my next breakdown.

[JMFP 1113]

On 4/25/2021 at 9:05 PM, Pato del Muerto said:

Just found this- seems too good to be true

Hudson Motors 3300-Watt Super Quiet Portable Inverter Generator, Gas Powered, CARB Compliant, Eco-Mode Feature, Ultra Lightweight for Backup Home Use & Camping https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HGPKCLG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_QT2MH62FAM6Y0DZJ4ZXY

I bought this one a couple months ago (when it was on sale) https://wenproducts.com/collections/inverter-generators/products/wen-56380i-super-quiet-3800-watt-portable-inverter-generator-with-fuel-shut-off

On my trailer it will run one A/C (or the fireplace heater), the water heater, and all the lights and frige at one time. Very quiet, inside the trailer I can barely hear it running. I've used the Honda 2000's and I can't tell that this one is any louder. Plus the electric starter is nice.

[JMFP 1113]

Spent last weekend with the inlaws, the kids stayed with their grandma on Friday night and their cousins house on Saturday so the wife and I camped nearby at Heyburn Lake near Kellyville, OK in the Corps of Engineers campground there

Got there Thursday night and saw Elon's Starlink fly over. Hundreds of 'em all in a line. I tried to take a video but you can't see shit.

Spent all day Friday doing family stuff and then left the kids with their Gigi. When wife and I got back to the trailer we found we had new neighbors: abuelo looked to be in his late fifties, his white wife (a larger lady), another woman I assume was her mother (about the same shape but older), I assume their daughter who looked to be early 20's, her papito, and at least 3 kids (might have been another one too?), so counting kids at least 8 people. They didn't have a camper just an older Inifinity SUV and a little white sedan parked in their RV spot. As we pulled up abuelo was setting up one of those 8 person tents right next to my picnic table in my yard. LOL they even had a little dog tied to our table and their crap all around my campsite. I didn't say a word, I just pulled out two lawn chairs and started my campfire which was about 10 feet from their tent, and mixed up a rum and coke. I think they realized then how the sites were laid out because he quickly moved all their shit over to their side, which was a really shitty spot to tent camp. Pretty ironic because on the other side of the campground was some really beautiful tent sites, I have no idea why they would pay double to stay in an RV site. The best part about this family though was the colorful language. Look, I'm not that offended by foul language but holy shit these women were loud and love to say fuck, Grandma even making jokes about the younger couple fucking. Never heard the men talk but the women were so loud I could hear them inside my trailer. I kind of felt bad for them Saturday night though because it rained and I know all their stuff had to be soaked. Especially felt bad for abuelo, he busted his ass setting up Friday and then again on Sunday tearing down and picking up all their trash.

 

 

Next week we're going to spend 5 days at Cricket Creek on the Arkansas side of Tablerock Lake, south of Branson. Going to take out the kayaks for the first time this year and the 5 year old just got her own so she is really excited to have her own boat for the first time.

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

On 5/10/2021 at 2:33 PM, davidg said:

This is pretty awesome if you are boondocking at places with a lot of other campers around.

Should ad a beer tap. 

[JMFP 1113]

Cricket Creek, AR on Tablerock south of Branson, MO... The five year old got to use her own boat for the first time today, she said she "was having the life of her time!"

[CHIEF 5045]

Flipped the axle on the huntin' trailer to get across the river and up a hillside to camp. I have 14" of ground clearance at the lowest point (sewer connect). Kyler Murray can walk under it without hitting his head.

CHIEF

[Pato del Muerto 52117]

Just bought a pair of these. Think I got a good price. 
 

https://www.target.com/p/wen-56203i-super-quiet-2000w-portable-inverter-generator-with-fuel-shut-off/-/A-82133199

[Lhorn 4863]

That seems pretty cheap. 

[horn4life 3749]

1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Just bought a pair of these. Think I got a good price. 
 

https://www.target.com/p/wen-56203i-super-quiet-2000w-portable-inverter-generator-with-fuel-shut-off/-/A-82133199

Best thing you can do is change the oil twice in the first few hours of usage, and break in the units by varying the rpms.  Oil is cheap and you will get a lot of metal shavings.  I thought about buying one of those magnetic oil caps but I was in too big a hurry initially.

[utee94 15722]

10 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Just bought a pair of these. Think I got a good price. 
 

https://www.target.com/p/wen-56203i-super-quiet-2000w-portable-inverter-generator-with-fuel-shut-off/-/A-82133199

I'm interested to see how long these off-brand gennys last compared to the Hondas and Yamahas.  I had a Honda for 10 years before it was stolen in a move, and it always performed well with only standard maintenance.  I've now had my Champion for 4 or 5 years and also no issues with standard maintenance.  But even the Champion was more expensive than a lot of the new off-brand models that are coming out, like these Wen gensets.

Keep us posted on how well they hold up!

[Pato del Muerto 52117]

I think wen uses a copy of the Yamaha 79cc motor. 
you can also get one from A1 that uses a Yamaha motor that isn’t much more costly. 

[davidg 4015]

Spent Memorial weekend and last weekend camping at Lake Granger and Lake Somerville respectively.  We drove to Granger with our son and then our daughter drove up and met us for the weekend.  When we reserved the site, we had expected family in the Austin area to come and visit us and hang out a bit as we used to camp there a bunch when the wife's parents had their trailer, but that didn't work out so it just ended up being our family.  I pulled the trailer and my wife towed the boat so we spent a good bit of time on the water even though the water temp was fairly cool.  It was good camping with the kids as we hadn't spent any time together since March of 2020.  Granger is an OK park but the COE parks seem to be a bit rowdier crowd and it was packed for Memorial day.  I didn't really take any pics over the weekend and really missed an opportunity for a great shot of an American flag wrapped deck boat named "Tha Donald" and its cutoff-sleeve wearing, mullet haircutted owner.

Last weekend we were at Birch Creek State Park at Lake Somerville.  We really like this park and can be there in about 90 minutes from leaving the house.  Most of the sites in this park are carved into the yaupon brush understory beneath post oaks except for a few at the end of each camping loop that look out over the lake.  There are a couple that we really like and it allows us to launch the boat and then anchor up off the shore for the whole weekend.  It makes it easy to just walk 50 yards down to the boat and take it out for a spin. 

We drove up Thursday night after work and setup and on Friday, my wife worked remote (3 bars of ATT LTE service at our site) while I did some work on the boat trailer and took to boat out for a few drives by myself.  On Saturday, our son drove over from College Station with a couple of his roommates for the day.  The lake was super flat all day and we did some tubing then tried to get his roommates up on a kneeboard and wakeboard with moderate success.   My son had never completed the Safe Boating course so he really hasn't driven the boat much without an adult in it.  When he showed up in the morning, first thing he did was pull out and present a printed copy of the course completion certificate and a Mel Stubing Captain's Hat, which he then wore the rest of the day.   After lunch, the yutes took a cooler of beer and headed out on the boat by themselves.  I have been wanting him to do it for years but it was weird seeing him drive off without being in the boat with them.  After a day of boating, I broke out the blackstone and griddled up some bacon, egg, 3-pepper cheeseburgers (with jalapenos) for the boys and sent them home stuffed.

Biggest issue this trip was the lake was up 7' over normal due to all the recent rains and the boat ramp in the park was shutdown so we had to drive down to the dam and launch at the marina.  Wasn't bad when we launched at noon on Friday but picking up at 3 on Sunday was a beating with 20-25 trucks/trailers in line waiting to pick up or launch.  If the lake is up again on our next trip we will definitely figure out a different launch spot.

 

Edited June 15, 2021 by davidg

[utee94 15722]

Nice.  I love grabbing campsites on the water so we can have both the boat and RV there.

I camped out for the NASCAR race at COTA in Austin a few weeks back.  It was pretty rainy, but we still managed to have a good time.

 

 

 

 

[Hawndoh 2363]

Recently completed 2675 miles through 9 States in 10 days with the family in the ol' travel trailer.

Did a loop up through Arkansas and across Missouri to St. Louis, over to Kentucky and down in Tennessee to Smokey Mountain NP. Then across Tenn and Arkansas back home.

[troph 24028]

6 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

Recently completed 2675 miles through 9 States in 10 days with the family in the ol' travel trailer.

Did a loop up through Arkansas and across Missouri to St. Louis, over to Kentucky and down in Tennessee to Smokey Mountain NP. Then across Tenn and Arkansas back home.

Any fav pics? Smokies are high on my list can’t help but just go west though when we fire up the truck. 

[Hawndoh 2363]

We haven't had a chance to get all the pics off various phones and sift through them on the computer.

It's a really pretty park, though. It does get extremely busy.

We parked at a campground resort place just outside Gatlinburg. Drove into the park which was only a couple minutes. The park itself has no entrance fee.

Didn't see any bears but saw plenty of deer and turkey. 

We largely ignored Gatlinburg. It's essentially hillbilly Vegas and is packed all the time.

[davidg 4015]

Recently completed 2675 miles through 9 States in 10 days with the family in the ol' travel trailer.
Did a loop up through Arkansas and across Missouri to St. Louis, over to Kentucky and down in Tennessee to Smokey Mountain NP. Then across Tenn and Arkansas back home.

2700 miles in 10 days sounds rough? Did you tow every day or have some really long days in there?

[mininghorn88 2243]

19 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

Recently completed 2675 miles through 9 States in 10 days with the family in the ol' travel trailer.

Did a loop up through Arkansas and across Missouri to St. Louis, over to Kentucky and down in Tennessee to Smokey Mountain NP. Then across Tenn and Arkansas back home.

Smokey Mountain NP is really nice. My daughter lives in North Carolina so I usually stop either on my way up or back in the Park to spend a couple of days hiking. Some fantastic views.

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

13 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

We largely ignored Gatlinburg. It's essentially hillbilly Vegas and is packed all the time.

I had a thread on the old site about gatlinbirg.  It’s like every single tourist trap attraction you could think of crammed into a a couple miles of road.  

[Hawndoh 2363]

13 hours ago, davidg said:

2700 miles in 10 days sounds rough? Did you tow every day or have some really long days in there?

A couple long days.

Day 1 drove from DFW to a state park near Eureka Springs Arkansas.

Day 2 all the way to an RV park in St. Louis.

Day 3, Did the Gateway Arch before loading up, drove to Lake Cumberland State Park in Kentucky. Spent two nights here, drove a day trip to an old coal mine and did a tour into a mine.

Day 5 drove to Gatlinburg TN, stayed 3 nights to have 2 full days in Smokey Mtn NP. Also arrived early enough to do some NP stuff that first evening.

Day 8 went to a TN state park near Linden, TN

Day 9, went all the way to Lake Catherine State Park near Hot Springs AR, this included a 3.5 hour Mississippi river crossing in Memphis with the messed up bridge. We would have diverted 60 miles to a different crossing but wanted to visit my brother in Memphis for lunch. We didn't get much time at this park and want to go back, it looked great. It's an easy trip from Dallas 

Day 10 all the way home.

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

What was the consensus on trailer tires? what are the recommended brands?

 I just had a royal ass whip of a day with all three (2 tires plus the spare) either going flat or blowing out.  I can’t even comprehend the bad luck here.  Well the spare blowing out I understand because it’s probably the original spare on a 10 year old pop up. But the other two were allegedly newish and had good tread on them. 
 

[Hawndoh 2363]

My parents pulled their travel trailer with us on our entire trip. He had all his original tires and it's only two years old.

He had a blowout on our long day where we had to cross the Mississippi. Fortunately it happened right before a rest stop and near a decent town in Arkansas. We got him changed and he was able to get a new tire.

His spare was all deformed too, but my spare from my trailer was the same size so I lent him mine.

He has since replaced all his tires once we got home. The factory tiles from Forest River were just garbage.