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Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: RV Service Tech
stevesmith812,
For sure more education is always a +.
As an independent don't forget the overhead, you are going to be a self employed contractor and you will need to be bonded for your own protection. while you may advertise on your truck not having a central location you will have to rely on word of mouth and you will need access to a parts source, not all areas have RV part houses that stock a full line of repair parts. You may even need more insurance over the typical bonding insurance.
I have a friend who has his own Mobile RV Repair service; no fixed building, he works out of an RV Park where he lives. He does alot of repair but he is in the Fort Worth/Dallas area where he can get a stove, refrigerator, or Ac Unit within 3 or 4 days for wholesale cost. If your going to order though a secondary business, ie, Camper World or such, you need to be sure they will give you your wholesale cost.
Good luck be careful how much you get invested. Most RV Repair Companies are not going to pay you enough to make your investment payments, ie, Truck, trailer, tools, consumables, etc.
Good Luck.
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square dancers
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04/30/12 08:35pm |
Workamping Forum
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RE: A day in the life of this workamper
No State Taxes here in Texas. We all know that we don't stretch the truth here in Texas. The gulf coast of Texas is the best coast for enjoying the life and liberty of being a Full Time RV'er and Workamper.
What are we doing here in Texas? We are wrapping up our winter Workamping gig and getting ready to head for our summer gig by May 1.
After 6 months we are ready to roll the tires and put a new view out our windows and the nice thing about Texas is that when you need to change your scenery or weather you can find all that without ever leaving Texas, but alas we are heading for the Red Headed Step-child of Texas, Oklahoma, for our summer gig, but we will be Texas bound come September doncha know.
Did mention we are in Texas?
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square dancers
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04/16/12 11:34am |
Workamping Forum
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RE: Garage Beds Question
lawnspecialties,
We have the Fuzion, it used to have the two bunks option until I removed the lower bunk option, lowered the upper bunk to those pegs and created a storage platform which for us is more user friendly. The down side is that I have to raise the platform back up in stages so I don't overload the motor which has internal overloads.
More to the point of your concern; The beds are on chains and they are designed to sleep or hold the the weight of around 300 lbs and unless you want to give your guests a ride manually the chain should support the weight without fear of falling, I don't know of any mechanical stops.
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square dancers
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03/20/12 06:29pm |
Toy Haulers
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RE: workampers needed
This e-mail address does not work I tried sending a message and it sya no such address
You can reach us at:
Phone: (386)-467-7171
Reservation Line: (866)467-7171
Fax: 386-467-7173
Mail: 1001 Front Street, Welaka, FL 32193
Or send us an e-mail!
info@welakalodge.com
Welaka Lodge & Resort
Marker 50
1001 Front Street
Welaka, FL 32193
386-467-7171
Reservations 866-467-7171
Fax 386-467-7173
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square dancers
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03/17/12 08:37pm |
Workamping Forum
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RE: Screwed up threads on Drain Plug for waterheater ?
You have recieved many solutions so far, here are a few more. They use plastic plugs so you can do what you did, destroy the plug and not the heater port it goes in. Using brass or steel plugs can bite you if you over tighten the plug and it gaulds the threads and pulls them out of the heater when you remove it. Best to use a paste thread sealer and not teflon tape. If the anode is part of the plug then you need to replace that very soon even if it means a plastic treaded plug. I would recommend you drain your heater twice a year and clean your anode with emory cloth, this helps your heater and also interupts the electrolysis process.
Good luck
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square dancers
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03/15/12 05:39pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Best lake to retire on
I would suggest that you look into the Table Rock Lake Area West and South of Branson. Your request didn't note how remote you are wanting your property to be.
Another choice would be in North West Arkansas on Beaver Lake East of Bentonville.
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square dancers
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03/09/12 09:47pm |
RV Lifestyle
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RE: Work camping in Florida
westernrvparkowner,
Some good points in your reply. When I cold contact a prospective Workamper site I Identify ourselves, identify their park, ask if they use Workampers, send a photo and business card, request a reply, offer to send a complete resume with photos, ending with a thank you and our names and email. I don’t believe that Park Owners are inundated with workamper requests that are generated from cold contacts; I also believe that I view each prospective Owner/Manager as a future employer and would hope they would reciprocate in kind to my being a future employee.
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square dancers
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03/07/12 12:38pm |
Workamping Forum
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RE: Work camping in Florida
Ewings2
I would like to echo the thoughts of wishuponanrvstar.
We have family around the Tampa area and spent several months looking into Workamping in that area. What we found was most parks want a yearly or permanent commitment. Many of the parks we contacted didn’t bother to respond to our inquiry. The only interest was from Corporate parks which have many hours required and they weren’t interested in our schedule only their needs. I contacted the source I gave you in my previous reply and asked about the no dogs and was told that does not apply to Workampers, I can see problems with that. We decided to fore-go a doubled thousand + mile trip to Florida and stay here in the wide open west.
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square dancers
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03/07/12 09:01am |
Workamping Forum
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RE: Work camping in Florida
Florida. Quail Roost RV Campground, a clean, friendly campground in Crystal River looking for maintenance/handyman. Skills needed in maintaining lawn and other equipment, plumbing, light electrical and general maintenance. Compensation is site, including cable, WiFi and first $100 electric in exchange for 24 hours per week. Long term preferred. Check us out at: www.quailroostrv.com then email us at: nancyfife@ymail.com or call: 352-601-0812.
9835 N. Citrus Ave.,
Crystal River, FL 34428
Phone: 352.563.0404
Fax: 352.795.1224
E-mail: qroost@hotmail.com
nancyfife@ymail.com
NO DOGS, PLEASE!
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square dancers
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03/06/12 03:44pm |
Workamping Forum
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RE: How far out?
Brian and Michele said;
Working on a 3 year plan to go full time, How far out do you normally look for workamping jobs?
Most park owner/managers will not commit to you more than one year out. With the ever increasing number of Workampers who want a wage + FHU the parks don’t want to spread their selves out and come up short because a Workamper changed their mind but didn’t let them in on the decision. Even parks who offer no extra pay over FHU don’t want to keep track of workamper commitments. Now if you are going to work for a government position they will be more willing to sign you up beyond a year out. We have positions scheduled up through September 2013 but they are all government commitment positions. You also need to prepare to commit to some of these positions for a minimum of 4 months and in some cases they prefer a year commitment. Our position we have now wanted a year and we agreed to 7 months.
If your post was referring to how far out to start planning on Workamping, we started 3 years out getting ready. We joined Workamper News.com and started tracking positions there, we continued to monitor RV.Net and Workamper News Forum and ask questions. We got our Workamper Resume ready and in a word document file, we added pictures of ourselves, pets, and rig to the file. We started a word document file on positions in an area we would like to go to and the parks that use Workampers. We like to stay active so we don’t schedule more than a week of travel/down time between positions.
Good luck on your search.
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square dancers
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03/03/12 02:37pm |
Workamping Forum
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RE: New to forum. I have questions
jimd3246,
As you can see; you will get as many thoughts as there is RV’ers with this question.
Since you asked; from my perspective your whole RV’ing experience begins with the tow vehicle; I would start with money but it’s understood if you’re going to Pull Full Time you need to have quality equipment.
We have an F450, we like Fords but the 450 or 4500 series is the key. Why, because after you hit the road you may find you want to upgrade your RV and this could mean a tow vehicle upgrade, this also gives you a vehicle that is manageable when not towing. A Diesel, no matter how much the cost of Diesel fuel, over the long haul Diesel power plants will last for 300 thousand + miles with regular maintenance. A long bed gives you a better turning radius and allows for tool boxes and fuel tanks. While I don’t favor extra fuel tanks because you need to get out of the truck and walk around every 3 hours or so and the added weight of the fuel is not cost effective along with the need to keep them full or they draw moisture and the fuel degrades the longer it remains in the tank. Your hitch is important; it should be rated to pull 25K, once again for any RV upgrades. A Dually gives you more towing capability than SWR and you have a more stable weight distribution while towing.
We have a 39’ Keystone Fuzion Touhauler with a 12’ garage. Your point about cabin fever is a non-factor; every RV by code cannot exceed 425 sq. ft. A 39’ toyhauler with a 12’ garage gives you 27’ of living space. You have to decide if you want interior walls or the open concept front to back. With the open concept you live with your toys and their smells, we have a sliding glass door that separates our garage from the living space. How much living space do you need will determine the length of your RV and since your tow vehicle will tow any RV you buy the length is not a problem.
Just my thoughts.
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square dancers
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03/03/12 10:03am |
Toy Haulers
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RE: Paying to get Work Kamping Info?
stargirl96
It greatly depends on what kind of Workamper you are. Are you; a 365 workamper? a 180 workamper? a COE workamper? a State or Federal Parks workamper? If you plan on any of these types of positions then you would need more sources than KOA offers and most COE, State, and Federal sites are free access.
You can get KOA workamping positions without buying a membership, not all KOA Resorts are Corporate run, many are individually owned.
You have Workamper News which requires a fee but gives you workamping possibilities on a much wider range of choices. But you will pay a yearly fee to access them. Workamper News also offers a wide range of classes over the internet and they sell books that help you as well.
Google these:
http://www.camphost.org/
http://www.coolworks.com/
http://www.serve.gov/
http://volunteerconus.blogspot.com/
http://volunteer.gov/gov/
http://www.work-for-rvers-and-campers.com/index.html
http://www.work-camping.com/
Caretaker Gazette
These are the best:
Workamper News.com
http://www.workampingjobs.com
http://www.lrn.usace.army.mil/volunteer/default.html
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square dancers
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02/20/12 02:09pm |
Workamping Forum
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RE: Use your ramp as a deck?
We have a toyhauler and have both the cable supports and support stand systems. Since we don't boon dock and most back in sites are not long enough to have the door down and many pullthu sites have the same problem of space availible. You also have to either have someone on site while the door is down or take everything apart each time you leave your site. It is a good option for unique positions but not a practical feature. We had planned to enclose ours with the screened in room effect but the hasle of setup and tear down was a drag. I do believe that if your door is designed to hold a #3000 vehicle going up it into your garage I don't think that you would have any strutural problems from cable or stand support system and people sitting on the door.
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square dancers
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02/20/12 01:33pm |
Toy Haulers
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RE: Slide Toppers
Slide toppers are mainly to keep the rain and leaves, etc, from entering your RV from the top of the slide. I don't know of any RV's that have any mechanism on the top of the slide? I don't see any value to investing in a slide topper, I take a broom or foxtail brush and clean off the top from time to time and always before I bring the sides in for travel. You should be more concerned with your bedroom slide if it retracts under your bed. People store all kinds of things under there that can jam up the slide travel and if you have an electric motor retraction system that can really mess up the gearing.
Most RV slides are deeper than the motorhome slides and when the side is extended the topper flaps in the wind so you have to invest in flap tensioners and install and remove them before you operate the slides, I have even seen people make a tee-bar out of PVC to keep tension on the topper to prevent it from flapping.
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square dancers
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02/18/12 10:07pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Open new campground
You didn't go into your backround or qualifications, so I do not know how able you will be to take on this challenge. A couple of opinions, based on my experience. The primary issue will be money. You will probably not be able to finance any of the construction costs, other than maybe a percentage of the buildings and a percentage of the land. For a 50 site RV park, figure on needing at least $500,000 to construct the sites, beyond the costs of the buildings (which will include a minimal restroom, shower and laundry facility and office buildings that will run around $200,000, minimal recreational facilities will be another $100,000 assuming a pool in a Florida necessity) and the land. This is a very conservative estimate and they will be bare bones sites, full hookups without extensive landscaping, paving etc. While huge, wide sites are nice, they are also expensive, for each foot of width you add to them figure on it costing you at least $50.00 per site (utility materials, more labor, longer trenches, deeper sewer lines to maintain slope, longer roads etc), again not counting landscaping and site finishing, plus you will need more acreage, adding even more to the costs.
Permitting is the 800lb gorilla in the room. You will have to acquire the property before permitting, incurring costs that will not generate any revenue. I can't imagine you could get a park permitted in less than two years. You will need legal and professional engineering help to get the permits.
Construction will take at least one year and probably two. In addition to the costs of construction, you will need to begin to advertise at this time. Once construction is complete, you will have to ramp up the advertising and start building clientel. Take reservations too early, and you run the risk of having customers without the facilities and you will start to generate bad publicity. Wait too long, and you will have an empty park.
Figure a minimum of a year after the park has opened before occupancy begins to cover the operating costs and another year before you start to cover the debt costs. It will probably be a minimum of 5 years from the start of the project before the cash flow turns positive. Do you have the financial resources and the patience to manage that type of commitment?
There is a reason most new parks are either constructed by corporate entities or current landowners who already own the land and do not have the holding costs while getting permits in place and are able to build them like you eat an elephant, one bite (a few sites) at a time. Parks are very capital intensive items to build and there is minimal (if any) bank or outside funding available.
Remember, first and foremost, you a building a business and your aim should be to make money. As this thread will show you, you are going to be unable to please everyone, and probably unable to completely please anyone. Build a quality facility, yet within your construction budget and the rest of the items will fall into place. You can always add amenities later which is much better than building them now and finding out they were a waste of money.
Now that I have beat the construction horse within an inch of it's life, consider buying an existing facility. You would have positive cash flow from day one, access to financing, permitting in place and you can take all the construction money and start improving the place without the worry that every day is another day with money going out and none coming in.
Desi 45
Page Two;
Once you and your mechanical draftsman get all the infrastructure issues on paper and have a foot print of the resort then you need to start looking for a location that meets those needs. Requirements would be adequate power grid, water, and sewer. Resort entrance, easy access to and from a major highway or interchange, what building permits for state, county, and city.
If you have 100 sites @ 50 amps your power demand will be 5K amps. When you add two rec halls with 200 amp service each, that is if you use Natural gas for your laundry dryers and water heaters, which raises your demand to 5.4K amps. Without Natural gas you will need a second 200 amps service for your laundry room and water heaters. So now your amp load is up to 5.6K and once you factor in your 10% cushion that gets you up around 6K amps power demand.
If you have 100 sites without a water well to help with your landscape watering you need to figure on a water demand of around 10K gallons a week, if you have the water well this volume could decrease. If your waste water is city sewer then your volume is dictates pipe size and tie-in cost. If you’re doing septic system then your tank and lateral lines will be sized by volume and you will need the required permits.
Be sure you read westernrvparkowner’s reply.
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square dancers
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02/14/12 02:56pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Open new campground
Desi 45
Great idea but you need to do a business model. I 95 would run along the east coast of Florida. I 75 would be more centrally located. Using Orlando as the hub you could use I 4 east to west as your center line.
You would need approximately 1.5 million to 2 million to finance your campground, call it a resort. You need to determine what are the building codes you would need to meet for the city and/or county. Sites need to be all pull through 90 feet long by 30 feet wide with all sites having 20/30/50 amp power, water, sewer, WIFI, and cable. They should all be concrete sites with concrete roadways in the resort. A visitor’s center with laundry room, bathrooms, rec room, with a small store all under one roof totaling 1000 sq. ft. A second rec hall for RV Rallies. A pool with a sauna, shuffle board, dog walk area, and walking paths are a good thought. A visitor’s parking area with RV, boat storage, and propane fill station.
Dream big and bring your wallet and financial advisor.
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square dancers
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02/13/12 09:26pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Currently Open Work Camper Positions
Sorry skyquest4494
I was rereading your OP and I should take a remedial reading class. You very plainly said Florida and I very plainly suggested a Texas sight.
Florida RV parks around Tampa from my experience seem to want year round workampers and don't have openings for summer workampers.
Sorry for my mistake.
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square dancers
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02/13/12 12:13pm |
Workamping Forum
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RE: Currently Open Work Camper Positions
Texas Spring/Summer 2012 Workamper Needed
Hidden Valley is looking for a couple to work a total of 80 hours per week in exchange for site and utilities in our park. We have positions available beginning in March 2012 and throughout the rest of the year. Responsibilities are varied and range from office/computer/reservation desk to grounds, mowing, landscaping, tractor operating, etc. I prefer at least a month, preferably longer, commitment since complete training can take almost a month. We are flexible but our firm requirement is good people and customer service skills. Please send info to our email or feel free to give us a call at 210-623-6737. teri@hiddenvalleyrv.net
http://hiddenvalleyrv.net
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square dancers
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02/06/12 07:27pm |
Workamping Forum
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RE: Mail Service
While the post office does not forward 3rd class mail a Mail Service is not the same as the post office. You pay that service a fee to handle your mail and if you get magazines, excessive junk mail and you want that stuff they will put it in the mailer envelope(s) and weigh it(them) and charge your account for that postage weight. However if you prefer to only recieve 1st class mail they will cull out other mail and file 13 it for you. A mail service will even open your mail upon signed agreement and dispose of items you don't want. A Mail Service has a signed contract that you allow them to handle your mail as a secondary delivery and they have to meet certain Postal Service requirements to provide their service. If you are using someone or a service which is does not meet the Posal Service guidelines then you risk loosing your mail and have no legal recourse.
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square dancers
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02/06/12 08:17am |
RV Lifestyle
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RE: Mail Service
Mail Service
Eric and Pat,
I would guess from your signature that you live in St Louis, Missouri or Illinois.
As pointed out by Us out West this is a highly discussed topic. But since you asked I don’t mind sharing what we use for our mail service.
We are full timers, we live in our RV, we own no fixed property, and we workamp our way around the country, we stay 4 to 6 months at a workamper position then it is time to move on.
First you need to answer some questions about your full timing intentions. Many people say they are full timers but they only RV part of the year and they still own a Bricks and Sticks in a state they call their home of record and live there some of the time which puts a whole different spin on your Mail Service options.
Second you need to answer the question of how long you’re going to stay in one location. You need to remain in a location long enough to let snail mail get your mail to you. If you know your next destination you might be able to have your mail sent there.
Third you need to determine how much 3rd class mail you have and get rid of 90% of it; it will cost you extra for the weight of it. Don’t forget to go with a good banking service that is user friendly from the remote locations you will be in.
I am going to give you what I think is the best choice for the best options and bang for your buck. Along with a great RV Park with many options from lot owner ship or just monthly rent.
www.escapees.com/mailforwardingservice.asp
www.escapees.com/
Hope this helps you some. This service is by far not the only Mail Service but in my opinion it offers the most diverse opportunities for the user. Texas as a whole has much to offer in respect Driver’s License, Insurance, Vehicle Tags, Voting options, and Jury Duty.
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square dancers
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02/05/12 06:07pm |
RV Lifestyle
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