Well I guess looking back, this should have been the first posting to this site, however it is here now.
So you have decided that you want to start camping or taking trips in your own unit. Well some questions you need to ask yourself would be: How much can we afford? How often are we going to use it? Where are we taking it? Do I need to change or upgrade vehicles to pull it? Where am I going to store or park it? And lastly how big do we need it to be?
So lets take a quick look at each one, I am going to try and hit the highlights as I have owned all but one style of the units but I have also done some RVing in all of them!
Campers - Campers are small units hauled in the back of your truck. They are limited to the size or your truck's box and truck's GVW = the bigger the truck the bigger the camper you can haul. They can be a pain to load and unload especially if by yourself, however once you have arrived at your destination you can drop the unit and have your truck free for?? Hauling a camper also means you are able to tow something be it a boat or trailer of some sorts. No special license is required, just the comfort of the driver to haul the unit.
Trailers - Trailers are units that hook up to a receiver hitch on your vehicle. Once again the trailer is limited to the size by what your vehicle can haul, IE: a big full size truck can pull a larger, heavier, longer trailer than say a Toyota SUV. A trailer once again, like campers, can be unhooked and left at the camp site again freeing the tow vehicle to be used for whatever. Should you be using a truck, the box is also empty for other items. A trailer or ( T.T. = travel trailer ) can be a long unit to pull, my suggestion would be to make sure you are comfortable driving as you can run into tight turning areas or areas that require backing out of. I have seen many a fight from my parents with regards to this.
Motor Homes or Buses - These can range from short ones of 14 feet to 40 feet long and longer! These units if properly equipped can also tow a trailer. Once again the longer the unit the more comfortable the driver needs to be. Long units do not turn on a dime and backing them up should you have a trailer can be a nightmare. My only complaint with a MH is that before you can go anywhere, everything needs to be stored or stowed away, unless your pulling a car.
5th Wheels - Sometimes called 5ers can be short or long. Once again the length or size of the 5th wheel is limited to the size and GVW of the truck. 5th wheels are pulled by mounting a 5th wheel hitch in the box of the truck, the hitch looks exactly like a big rig or 18 wheeler driving down the highway. Once again like a trailer, 5th wheels can be dropped at the campsite and you have your truck free to do whatever. Down side, the box of your truck has the hitch in it so, you have very little room when hauling in your box. The hitch itself can be very heavy to remove but two men can usually handle it fine. Should you be pulling a long unit your skills should be like that of a commercial truck driver.
5th wheels, buses and trailers can come with whats called a push out or slides. A section on the side of the unit that with power or hydraulics moves out like an extension or accordion and gives more room inside. Hell I have even seen a camper with a slide. Units bought in British Columbia that weight over 5500 kg are now requiring a special license called a "Heavy Hauling Endorsement". This or a class 3 license is needed to operate these units, I hate to see what the fines are if caught without it. Much like having the boating course to operate a boat the HHE or class 3 is to make sure the driver is capable of operating the unit safely. There is a fee for this new endorsement on your license and a road test as well, you will be driving the unit around town with the examiner.
So, there are some basics and the names. At this point in time I can not think of any I have left out, sorry if I did. Should you be considering a unit my BIGGEST suggestion is research!! Once you have narrowed down what your looking for go look, touch, test driver, what ever. Don't settle, don't make do. Settling leads to two-foot-itice.....lol. In our case we planned on living and travelling with our unit. We plan on parking in one spot and exploring the surrounding area, then after some time, picking up and moving. We wanted a large enough unit to have all the amenities of home as it is going to be our home. It took us 4 years almost in looking and talking, touching and driving to dealerships 6 hours away to decide.
I hope this helps you in your quest and remember........happy on peeps!
Puff
Saturday 12 January 2013
Thursday 10 January 2013
Power and Our Home - Puff's View
Hello
I am sure many of us don't think about power and water with regards to how does it enter our home and how do we use it. It is fairly simple on the RV side with regards to our coach a few exceptions which are our choices.
I already covered the water hose and how to insulate it for the winter time and cold weather. Should it get below -3c we and all of our neighbors will turn on the taps in our homes and let the water run. Now before you get all upset the water usage it is the only practical thing to do so we do not freeze and or blow lines up.
That being said we are off the power side. In our coach like most others we have a combination of 12volt and 110volt. The 12v is just like the power from your car's battery, in our case we have the same kind of battery. Our 12v battery is a little different in that it is designed for use in an RV or boat, in actual fact we have three 12v batteries wired in parallel to give us a super 12v battery. It is still 12v just a much stronger, longer lasting supply of energy cause we do not want to be discharging our battery all the time. Now there are many things that work off the 12v in our coach. We have lights, the water pump ( when not hooked up to city water ), the electric spark for the fridge and the hot water tank and the exhaust fans in the ceiling. I may have missed something or not....LOL. Our fridge can run on propane or 110v depending on what settings I select, hence the fridge will turn itself on when running on propane just like a everyday fridge however it needs that spark to ignite the propane. The hot water tank is the same principle.
The 110v in our place is the same once again as the power in your regular homes. I have an over sized power cord the plugs into our coach and then a box outside ( supplied by the RV park ) and we have power! Items in our home that require 110v are the TV's, microwave, air conditioner, washer and dryer, ceiling fan and fire place. As you can see nothing on the list is essential.
Should we have a power outage I will still be able to cook ( stove and oven are propane ), Furnace is propane so I will be warm, I will have lights cause they are 12v, I will be able to take a shower ( hot water tank is propane ). What else does a person need?! OK we will have to find a laundry mat open and working for some clean undies but I have enough to last a few days...LOL.
Should the outage last more than day or so we have purchased a small generator to help out. I do not plan on running anything large off the generator as I said it is a small 1500 watts. I plan to hook up a battery charger which I purchased from our local Canadian Tire, on sale I might add! The plan is to start the generator up, plug in the charger and hook it up to the batteries. My power situation will not change, everything will be the same I am just charging the batteries, your car does this automatically while driving I am just using a generator. I may be able to run something else small but will have to see when the time comes, if it comes! Now some of you may ask why not just install or start the built in generator. Well our unit did not come with a generator installed, it is an option and can be done however it is very costly. My first quote came in around $6,000.00...........a little hard to swallow!! My small unit was again purchased from Canadian Tire ( NO I do not receive endorsements or work for them..LOL ) at a cost of $180.00 and the battery charge is a heavy duty unit on sale for $59.00, grand total of $239.00 and and extension cord. Anybody can see the cost savings instantly, yes I will have to get off my but a start it rather than pushing a button inside my coach to start the on board unit but getting off my but will not cost me $5,761.00
Other than a few minor exceptions here and there regarding some difference from coach to bus and smaller units that pretty much covers it. There were some other options like buying a big enough generator to run the whole coach but then we are talking more money, more weight and taking up more space not to mention there is a whole bunch of other electrical issues when hooking up a larger unit. Some other day if asked I might elaborate!
From the warm and dry happy Crickit and Puff Coach.........hey C.P.C......not bad! Oh and BTW, just because I am warm and well feed while the power is out does not mean this is an invitation for all to join me for dinner. OK, OK, fine......dinner at my place but bring your own towel and shampoo...LOL
Have a great day!
I am sure many of us don't think about power and water with regards to how does it enter our home and how do we use it. It is fairly simple on the RV side with regards to our coach a few exceptions which are our choices.
I already covered the water hose and how to insulate it for the winter time and cold weather. Should it get below -3c we and all of our neighbors will turn on the taps in our homes and let the water run. Now before you get all upset the water usage it is the only practical thing to do so we do not freeze and or blow lines up.
That being said we are off the power side. In our coach like most others we have a combination of 12volt and 110volt. The 12v is just like the power from your car's battery, in our case we have the same kind of battery. Our 12v battery is a little different in that it is designed for use in an RV or boat, in actual fact we have three 12v batteries wired in parallel to give us a super 12v battery. It is still 12v just a much stronger, longer lasting supply of energy cause we do not want to be discharging our battery all the time. Now there are many things that work off the 12v in our coach. We have lights, the water pump ( when not hooked up to city water ), the electric spark for the fridge and the hot water tank and the exhaust fans in the ceiling. I may have missed something or not....LOL. Our fridge can run on propane or 110v depending on what settings I select, hence the fridge will turn itself on when running on propane just like a everyday fridge however it needs that spark to ignite the propane. The hot water tank is the same principle.
The 110v in our place is the same once again as the power in your regular homes. I have an over sized power cord the plugs into our coach and then a box outside ( supplied by the RV park ) and we have power! Items in our home that require 110v are the TV's, microwave, air conditioner, washer and dryer, ceiling fan and fire place. As you can see nothing on the list is essential.
Should we have a power outage I will still be able to cook ( stove and oven are propane ), Furnace is propane so I will be warm, I will have lights cause they are 12v, I will be able to take a shower ( hot water tank is propane ). What else does a person need?! OK we will have to find a laundry mat open and working for some clean undies but I have enough to last a few days...LOL.
Should the outage last more than day or so we have purchased a small generator to help out. I do not plan on running anything large off the generator as I said it is a small 1500 watts. I plan to hook up a battery charger which I purchased from our local Canadian Tire, on sale I might add! The plan is to start the generator up, plug in the charger and hook it up to the batteries. My power situation will not change, everything will be the same I am just charging the batteries, your car does this automatically while driving I am just using a generator. I may be able to run something else small but will have to see when the time comes, if it comes! Now some of you may ask why not just install or start the built in generator. Well our unit did not come with a generator installed, it is an option and can be done however it is very costly. My first quote came in around $6,000.00...........a little hard to swallow!! My small unit was again purchased from Canadian Tire ( NO I do not receive endorsements or work for them..LOL ) at a cost of $180.00 and the battery charge is a heavy duty unit on sale for $59.00, grand total of $239.00 and and extension cord. Anybody can see the cost savings instantly, yes I will have to get off my but a start it rather than pushing a button inside my coach to start the on board unit but getting off my but will not cost me $5,761.00
Other than a few minor exceptions here and there regarding some difference from coach to bus and smaller units that pretty much covers it. There were some other options like buying a big enough generator to run the whole coach but then we are talking more money, more weight and taking up more space not to mention there is a whole bunch of other electrical issues when hooking up a larger unit. Some other day if asked I might elaborate!
From the warm and dry happy Crickit and Puff Coach.........hey C.P.C......not bad! Oh and BTW, just because I am warm and well feed while the power is out does not mean this is an invitation for all to join me for dinner. OK, OK, fine......dinner at my place but bring your own towel and shampoo...LOL
Have a great day!
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