- CarForumPoster
- Jun 26, 2013
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I'm gonna borrow your idea of hotel ratings for the purpose of this post.
Major thanks for your post. I made it this far in this thread and it's been highly educational
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Dec 31, 2022 23:17
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May 21, 2024 01:18
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- CarForumPoster
- Jun 26, 2013
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⚡POWER⚡
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I went to Camping World today and took a look at a few kinds of each of the major groups.
Definitely learned what I liked and didn't like about many trailers/motorhome options. Some notes for future me and maybe other thread total newbies:
- Slides are the way for me.
- If I am buying one, I'd likely never buy a Class C...likely either van-camping or a trailer for me.
- Massive insulation/heating differences. Two side-by-side trailers on sunny 70°F day and they're 10°F difference.
- The dry weight and GVWR of some fairly spacious trailers was much less than expected.
- Hoo boy is there some LOL terrible build quality in the coachbuilding space. Wood not screwed together flush. Trim that was cut too long. Bigger the gob, better the job sealant application all over. Some were clearly better than others.
I took a look at Cruise America's motorhome pricing. Somewhat cheaper than Outdoorsy.com. I'd need to use a late model used Class C motorhome for 400-500 days to break even over Cruise America. Even just 10 yr depreciation I'd need to do 250+ days.
Anyone had experiences with Cruise America?
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Jan 1, 2023 23:31
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- CarForumPoster
- Jun 26, 2013
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⚡POWER⚡
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It is July yet! After 10+ years of wanting an RV, I'm the proud owner of a Mean Bean!
I'm still sorting through photos and I'll post some more once I do, but my wife and I just got back yesterday. Absolutely loving the trailer so far, and I can't wait to take it out more this fall and winter! This was the first trip in a long time that I didn't get the itch to come back home after awhile... if anything, I'm honestly bummed that it's over. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about what it would take to be on the road for several months at a time, though ultimately it would probably have to be a different trailer to bring the cats along and have a good space for working remote.
Like any good adventure though, we ran into a few hiccups along the way. An old guy towing his speedboat backed the propeller into my car at a gas station in Vernal, but thankfully it was just a dent in the hatch. Once we got the trailer, we had a few initial struggles with the LiFePO4 battery running out in the middle of the night, then showing 100% the next day in the Victron monitor app. Took some head scratching, but eventually I noticed the positive wire from the solar port had come loose from the distribution block, and figured out the monitor had been configured to reset the state of charge to 100% when it died. So, the bit of solar in the morning + a few amps from my portable battery pack only got it up enough for me to think it was charging throughout the day, but the monitor wasn't allowing it to fully charge due to not remembering the SOC on reset. Think I've everything set up properly and reconnected now, and I'll do a deeper dive here soon.
Let's see... we also had someone try to jimmy the door lock while we were camping at Lewis Lake in Yellowstone. Middle of the day while we were visiting the park too. Which just sucks because they busted up the lock cylinder pretty good, so I'm going to try to contact Bean and see if they can point me in the direction of a replacement. I think it may have been a youth group camping in the site next to us, based on some snippets I overheard later that evening. And also the fact the solar panel hadn't been stolen, despite being unlocked and laying atop the roof rack while we were gone.
All in all, minor stuff thankfully. We also had a pretty bad storm hit us with golfball sized hail at Sheridan Lake, but thankfully nothing was damaged (including the solar panel, and it was honestly a welcome relief from the recent heat wave. Which, as a side note, I'd be curious how good some of those portable AC units are, because that would be pretty great for hot and humid nights.
Overall, relatively minor stuff, at least until my Outback's transmission decided to transmit its last right outside Peoria at about one in the morning a few nights ago. The indicator lights went nuts out of nowhere, so I pulled off to the side of freeway, did some research, and was thankfully able to limp to the nearby exit and safely park at a nearby Motel 6. Got a room to figure things out, but was initially a bit skeeved by the full service prostitution and dealer ring operating right beside where I had stupidly decided to park. I don't think I've ever seen so many people hopping in and out of windows and hanging around a parking lot till the wee hours of the morning, but they were probably just as freaked out by me being there, at least judging from the nearby rooms' lookouts opening and shutting their blinds every time I glanced over. Honestly, the room was nice and clean, the AC worked great, the staff was really nice, and despite my initial misgivings, we had zero issues whatsoever. I'm truly grateful it worked out as well as it did and we were able to safely get off the freeway and find a place to stay.
The next morning I arranged for the car to be towed to a nearby transmission shop, though after they opened up I found out they don't work on Subarus due to licensing cost of the software. But they were incredibly nice about the whole thing, and eventually I was able to find a broker to arrange a long haul vehicle delivery to get the car home later that day. Then I got even luckier and found a Uhaul pickup truck rental to tow the trailer home. Now I just need to rent a vehicle dolly, tow a working car back to Peoria, drop off the rental truck, and drive back home tomorrow (about 11ish hours round trip).
Tl;dr, despite some headwinds, it was honestly an incredible trip that I'd do again in a heartbeat! I'll post up some more pics once I sort through things.
Still better than tent camping?
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Jul 30, 2023 07:13
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- CarForumPoster
- Jun 26, 2013
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⚡POWER⚡
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Check out the app named "OrganicMaps". It lets you download the OpenStreetMaps maps for whatever states/provinces/countries you choose, and it will keep them up to date. It does search and navigation locally on your device. I don't think it has any way of getting traffic, of course. I use Google Maps day to day, but I keep it as a backup for if I find myself off grid.
Thanks for this!
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Apr 11, 2024 12:57
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Dec 31, 2022 23:17
