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Date Posted |
Forum
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Our Full Timing setup
Hi here everyone,
Well the wife and I have been full timing for over 3 years and we are loving it! Here is a video that covers a little chronology of the Stick and brick houses we have had together and the RV's as well. The video is about 15 minutes long. The last 11 minutes of it are a video about our RV and the spot we are at. Enjoy!
Our life full timing!
Happy camping! Eric and Carol
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luvdoggiez
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05/25/12 07:24am |
Full-time RVing
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solar panels
Hi there, We bought a couple of solar panels at a yard sale. The output from the solar panels is 200 watts at 40 volts.
Are these a unit that we could use on a motorhome after buying the correct equipment. What sort of additional equipment would we need to buy. Would a Charge controller be all we need.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks! - Eric -
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luvdoggiez
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05/04/12 08:45pm |
Tech Issues
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ladder recomendation
Hi there everyone,
DW and I have been full timing for over three years now, and we're finally deciding that a colapsable ladder of some sort would come in handy. There are three types we are considering, and want to get some input from you folks.
The extendable ladder which shortens down to about 2 feet, but can be extended one section at a time to a desired length.The foldable type that is in four sections that fold, but can be turned into a form of a scaffoldingThe fold up type that folds into a 4X4 shape but is 6 foot long. It looks like a 6 foot step ladder when it is all set up.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Happy camping!
Thanks! - Eric -
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luvdoggiez
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04/28/12 10:13pm |
Full-time RVing
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Loving the good life!
Hi there everyone,
Well, we have been full timing now for over three years. We both work full time at our state jobs here in Sacramento. We have been RV'ing since the late 90's but when DW lost her job, and the realestate market tanked, we had to short sale our home and move into the RV. Living full time in the RV was always the plan, but it happened a little sooner and with a bit more of a thud, than either of us had wanted. We had hoped to sell our home and make enough money off the deal to pay off the RV, but it didn't turn out that way. Also, we were exiting into an RV that was not quite the full time rig we had envisioned. But, because we short saled instead of doing a foreclosure, we were able to salvage our credit in two years and buy the RV of our dreams.
We live full time in our 2003 Allegro Bus motorhome. It has two slides and is absolutely perfect for us! We have all of the room and storage that we need. We live in an RV/Mobile home park in Sacramento. We're concerned that we will be forced out of this park as they try to bring more Mobile homes in, but for the time being, we are very happy where we are at.
We are only a few miles from our daugther and her Boyfriend, and we love being able to get together with them when they have the time. :W
We get out on a monthly basis in the rig to check out some local camp ground. We try to find new places we have never been before, and so far, we are being very successful at it.
We still get out once a year for a vacation trip. With me (DH) just changing jobs, getting paid vacation won't really happen for another year, but in the mean time, we get away for a long weekend every once in a while so that we can an extended get-away.
Little by little, we do little upgrades to the Rig as time and money permits. For the most part, we are focusing on getting the interior lights swapped out with LED units. Our florescent lights are slowly bighting the dust as the balasts give up the ghost. We are changin them out with LED fixtures from the good folks at Coil and wrap. We are also changing out the bulbs in the puck lights from them as well when the bulbs burn out.
Hardly a day goes by that we don't make the comment about how happy we are to live full time in our RV. It's not for everyone, but for just the two of us, our three medium sized dogs and our cat, it is just perfect. We're happy, comfortable and very much in love, so it just could not be better!
It will probably be another 10 years before we pay off the MOHO and 5 years after that, before we can retire and hit the road full time to see this great country of ours, but we are enjoying our Full time experience even while still working.
If you get a chance, check out our Blog HERE!
Happy camping! Eric and Carol Anderson
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luvdoggiez
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04/22/12 08:12pm |
Full-time RVing
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Our sad roses
Hi there everyone,
We are full time RV'ers who have a spot in Sacramento California. We both expect to be in this RV park for the foreseable future. The rent is good, but the services are limited here at this park as far as grounds keeping. We have a rose bush that was in this site when we moved in. We are doing our best to bring it back to life. We pruned it last year and though the bush looks healthy, the buds look funky.
Any thoughts on what we might have going on here?
Thanks!
Happy camping! http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff23/luvdoggiez/WP_000269.jpg width=600- Eric and Carol Anderson -
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luvdoggiez
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04/22/12 07:49pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Electrical problems in the front of our Freightliner
Hi there everyone,
Well, this electrical problem with the Dash lights has been bugging me for a while. We had a family friend come over who had worked on car stereo installation for 7 years. He tracked the problem down to the fact that there were some after-market dash lettering lights (on the switch panel) that were probably causing too much current to be drawn through the fuse and blow it. When we placed those after-market lights on a seperate 10 amp fused circuit labeled 'Extra', and returned the original Panel lamps circuit to a 10 amp fuse, everything seems to be in good shape. We added lighted switch to the Extra lead so that I get the additional reminder that the after-market lights are on. Also, the extra circuit is only 'Hot' when the ignition is on.
Thanks everyone for their feed back, I'll keep it in mind going forward.
Happy camping! (Again!) Eric and Carol
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luvdoggiez
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03/29/12 06:17am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Freightliner service in Sacramento region
Hi there everyone,
Well, this electrical problem with the Dash lights has been bugging me for a while. We had a family friend come over who had worked on car stereo installation for 7 years. He tracked the problem down to the fact that there were some after-market dash lettering lights (on the switch panel) that were probably causing too much current to be drawn through the fuse and blow it. When we placed those after-market lights on a seperate 10 amp fused circuit labeled 'Extra', and returned the original Panel lamps circuit to a 10 amp fuse, everything seems to be in good shape. We added lighted switch to the Extra lead so that I get the additional reminder that the after-market lights are on. Also, the extra circuit is only 'Hot' when the ignition is on.
Thanks everyone for their feed back, I'll keep it in mind going forward.
Happy camping! (Again!) Eric and Carol
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luvdoggiez
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03/29/12 06:16am |
Class A Motorhomes
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Freightliner service in Sacramento region
We have a 2003 Allegro Bus motorhome that is on a Freightliner chassis. We have an electrical problem where the Instrument lights come on momentarily when we turn on the head light switch and then they go dark because the fuse for the dash lights blows.
I've tried as best I can to find the cause of the short and had no luck. I've called Sacramento truck center and talked to their RV division representative and he sounded kind of surley.
Has anyone dealt with them and are they good people to deal with?
Does anyone have any other suggestions in the Sacramento area of someone they recommend to find an electrical problem witha a dash board.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks! - Eric -
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luvdoggiez
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03/25/12 06:55pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Taxes interest and penalties
Thanks everyone for your input. The reason we owe so much is we took money out of our 401K to put a down on the MOHO. So, we won't experience that problem again next year. :-)
Thanks again everyone. BTW, I plan to file this week! :-)
Happy Camping! - Eric and Carol -
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luvdoggiez
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03/20/12 09:52pm |
Around the Campfire
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Taxes interest and penalties
Hi there, DW and I owe $7,000 on our taxes this year. We can either pay the tax bill with our credit cards (at 28% interest, yes, we have lousy credit right now) or we can make payments to the Feds and the state of California. Does anyone know which will be cheapest for us? We don't have enough income to pay the credit cards off. It would take a year or two to do so.
If anyone can tell us what we will pay annualy for interest and penalties, that would be great.
Thanks! - Eric -
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luvdoggiez
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03/19/12 11:48am |
Around the Campfire
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Electrical problems in the front of our Freightliner
Hi there everyone,
We have some issues in the front of our Alegro bus that is on a Freightliner chassis. Any suggestions or insight would be greatly appreciated!
1. The dash lights are grounded out. We keep blowing the fuse for the Dash lights. When we turn on the headlights/marker lights, the dash lights will come on real bright for a second and then the fuse will blow. I've placed a VOHM meter in one side of the fuse slot and found 12 volts. The hot side seams to be sourced from the Marker light fuse. When I place the meter on the other side of the fuse slot, I get 1.4 ohms resistance, which I interpret to mean I have a hot lead shorted to ground some where. Any suggestions on how I might approach this? I have some ideas, but I welcome any suggestions.
2. The Air conditioner in the dash is a little funky. The fan runs on the various speed settings, but the slower the speed, the louder the rattle out of the fan. Not quite sure how to get to the fan on our 2003 Alegro bus. We've pulled out the drawers below the backup monitor, but that doesn't seem to get us anywhere. I don't see any mounting screews that hold the kick panel in to the right of the stair well (as you enter the rig) so I'm not sure if I should be going at this from inside the coach or outside. Again, any suggestions would be great!
3. Along the theme of tha air conditioner, when we have the A/C control set to A/C, it blows warm air. When we have it set on A/C Max, it blows fridgid air, so we can't seem to get a happy medium. Also, adjusting the blendor knob doesn't seem to do anything to adjust the temperature. As in section two, not quite sure how to get to this area, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much! Happy camping! - Eric and Carol -
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luvdoggiez
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03/18/12 08:50pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Fresh water issues
Hi there everyone,
Well, I talked to the good folks in Red Bay Alabama this morning. Unfortunately, since our Moho is a 2003, they don't have any diagrams going that far back. But, the technician told me generally, when they build their class 'A' rigs, they do attach a vent hose to the fresh water tank so that it will vent. He also told me I don't have to remove the gravitiy fill cap when filling the tank. So, it sounds like I do have a blocked vent pipe somewhere.
Thanks everyone for your insight and suggestions.
Happy camping! - Eric -
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luvdoggiez
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03/15/12 09:16am |
Class A Motorhomes
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Fresh water issues
Hi there everyone,
We found a couple problems with our fresh water system in our motorhome. First, we found water leaking from the gravity fill fresh water port where you can pour water into the fresh water tank, from a hose, transfertank or other method. The hose passes from an inlet on the back of a panel into our fresh water tank. The outside diameter on the flange is 1 1/8 inch. Any thoughts on where I should look for replacement hose for this?
Also, when we fill our tank from the presurized port, our fresh water tank blows up like a baloon when filled and becomes concave when it is drained. Sounds to us like the tank isn't venting correctly. Has anyone ever run into this?
Suggestions on either case would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks! - Eric and Carol -
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luvdoggiez
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03/14/12 12:54pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Windows Spawn Web based e-mail
We are using yahoo mail, but I also have a friend who is using AOL mail and is frustrated with a similar issue.
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luvdoggiez
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02/26/12 04:55pm |
Technology Corner
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Windows Spawn Web based e-mail
Hi there all of you comptuer savvy folks. I've got one that has stumped me for a while. There are some web-sites that if you click on a 'Contact us' link, the web browser will spawn the Mail client installed on the machine so that you can send an e-mail. The problem is, I want my machine to spawn my web browser and bring up my e-mail page to compose an e-mail. I don't want it to spawn Outlook, Outlook Express or MS mail or anything else like that.
Has anyone actually delt with this issue and found a solution for what I am talking about?
Thanks in advance for your assistance. - Eric -
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luvdoggiez
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02/24/12 01:47pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Water leaking from air conditioner
Just a point of clarification. The problem isn't with the gasket between the AC unit and the roof. It is within the mounting plate of the AC unit it self. There is a bolt plate that pulls down on the base plate of the AC unit.
Can I just get any sort of 'Gasket tape' for this purpose? Because the old material looked like a couple of strips of really thick electrical tape. But more spongy than the denseness of electrical tape. What would I ask for at a Auto parts counter?
Thanks for the help! - Eric -
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luvdoggiez
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01/31/12 09:37am |
General RVing Issues
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Water leaking from air conditioner
Hi there everyone,
We had three bad rain storms in a row and found water coming in from one of our Roof air conditioners. We took the shroud off and found a bunch of water pooled in low spots of the air conditioner, where there are no drain holes. One of the low spots is near where the air is pulled up from the coach into the condenser coils.
We figured out that the water is wicking down one of four bolts that keeps the backing plate on the interior of the RV to the ceiling and pulls the unit snug agianst the roof. There is a bolt plate that pulls down on the unit. There is gasket material between the bolt plate and the mounting plate that is suppose to keep water out, but that appears to have failed. The area inside and outside of the gasket material is soaking wet and we haven't had any rain in a week.
I've removed and cleaned the area where the old material was, and dried it thouroughly. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should use in place of that material.
Thanks!
Happy camping! Eric and Carol
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luvdoggiez
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01/31/12 08:40am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Water getting in the motorhom
Hi there everyone,
We figured out that the water is infact wicking down one of four bolts that keeps the backing plate on the interior of the RV to the ceiling and pulls the unit snug agianst the roof. There is a bolt plate that pulls down on the unit. There is gasket material between the bolt plate and the mounting plate that is suppose to keep water out, but that appears to have failed. The area inside and outside of the gasket material is soaking wet and we haven't had any rain in a week.
I've removed and cleaned the area where the old material was and dried it thouroughly. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should use in place of that material.
Thanks!
Happy camping! Eric and Carol
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luvdoggiez
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01/30/12 07:12am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Preparing for U-Verse service
We've been on uverse now for two months. Love it way more than Dish!
Thanks everyone for your input!
Happy camping! Eric and Carol
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luvdoggiez
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01/23/12 08:23pm |
Full-time RVing
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Water getting in the motorhom
Hi there everyone,
We have a 2003 Allegro Bus motorhome. We had a pretty nasty rain storm come through the area a day or so ago. There was a LOT of wind (in excess of 25 miles an hour) with it. We now have a bunch of water that seems to have pooled in the rim of the trim plate that is on the ceiling at the bottom of the unit. I removed the filter and trim plate. I reached up into the unit, (with the power turned off) to see if I could find any moisture. It seems like the mounting plate on the roof has some water pooled up there too. My guess is that the water wicked/dripped down the mounting bolts that connect the base of the AC unit from the roof, to the bracket, inside the coach that the trim plate attaches too.
My question is, is this normal? If not, I presume I should proceed up to the roof and remove the shroud and take some sort of action. Once I remove the shroud, what should I do?
I look forward to your input!
Happy Camping! - Eric -
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luvdoggiez
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01/22/12 09:01am |
Class A Motorhomes
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