New to the RV-Dreams family! - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Dreamers · RV-Dreams Family Member

New to the RV-Dreams family!

Speedhitch · RV-Dreams Family Member

It is an honor to have you on our forum and we all welcome you to the family of Dreamers. We hope that your house sells quickly and that you are on the road soon. Keep in touch with all of us and let us know how you are doing.

Jim01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome to the forum! smile

Glad you decided to follow your dream and get out on the road. You may find that some of the health problems actually improve once you get away from the "rat race" of living in a stix and brix house.

Keep us updated on the sale of the house and your progress towards full-timing.

As far as blogs go, you might want to go to www.blogger.com and check it out. It's really not too difficult.

Jim

Dreamers · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks to Speedhitch and Jim01 for the nice welcome! I've been wondering if there is anyone else out there as old as us. We may be in a class by ourselves. I am 68 and my DH is 73. However, we're both very active and as I said I still work. DH is retired due to disabilities. I just regret that we have wasted all this time thinking we could not do this. We know we can and we will.

Does anyone know anything about the air ride 5th wheel hitches. They're very expensive and wonder if they are really worth their cost. I believe they are sold out of Celebration, FL. We have a goose neck hitch on the truck we bought and are really looking for a conversion for it since the gooseneck is rated for 25,000 pounds. There ought to be a way to use it to pull the fifth wheel we're looking for.

As we travel to and from Tampa, FL this weekend we will be stopping at every RV sales dealer we pass looking for 5th wheels. We have found a couple we like. One is a 2010 Keystone Outback 33 ft and the other is a 2010 Heartland Sundown 34 foot. Does anyone have any experience with these?

Later, Judy

"Two old crows and a dog named Berryjane"

DreamerBob · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome Judy & Bob! You've found a great place to get trustworthy answers to what seems like a million questions.

As far as picking an RV, I'd highly recommend the Tampa RV show in January. You'd get a chance to see a LOT of Rv's side by side without driving all around the creation. You can walk through them, ask questions, & see what features are most important to you. We went last year & it really helped us a lot. I'd plan on going for several days if you're able.

Best of luck & welcome aboard!

eagleshea · RV-Dreams Family Member

First, let me say welcome to the family. This is a great bunch of folks !!! Second, don't worry about the time that you have missed, just enjoy the time that you have. Many good times ahead !!!

I will second Bob. I would plan on attending the Tampa RV Show. This is a great place to see different types and styles and you can sometimes find a great deal there. I know my wife and I are planning on going as we too will be looking for a 5th wheel in the future.

Good luck and keep us up to date.

Dakota Grey · RV-Dreams Community Member

Welcome to the group. You will find, as I have, that the folks here are very friendly and more than willing to answer your questions. Good luck on your quest for a camper,and then enjoy your time together. I am looking forward to our first extended trip come spring.

Kerri · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi Judy! SO good to see someone else from Alabama on here! Welcome to the forum. I've only been on here a few weeks, but have been so impressed with the members. They are some of the most courteous, knowledgeable people I've ever encountered. Hope you find the perfect-for-you 5ver very soon!

Kerri

Happytrails · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome to you both!!! This is a great community of RVers so please join in.
Don't worry about when you start this lifestyle what is important is that you have decided to follow your dream. Good for you!!

We just started full-timing in August and just simply love this lifestyle. You actually might find that your health does improve. I hope so.

Keep us updated on the sell of the house. The market seems to be getting a bit better so that will help.

Dreamers · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks to all of you who have welcomed us. It makes us feel like we're home. Sorry it took so long to acknowledge all of your replies but we were out of town - actually in Tampa, FL. Don't know if we can get back in January or not. But, would like to have more info on the show as to where it is held, the dates, etc.

Thanks to all!

Judy

2 Old Crows and a dog named Berryjane

dream reachers · RV-Dreams Family Member

Roll Tide and War Eagle, It is good to see some others from Alabama. Welcome to the forum. We lived outside of Montevallo on a few acres with horses. We decided to change our lifestyle and go fulltiming. We sold everything over 2 years ago and after finishing our work we hit the road and have been traveling and volunteering all over the USA. Alabama is still our home base and we are parked in our daughters driveway in the Birmingham area as we visit the family for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have a Trailair Pinhitch which softens the ride for the truck and trailer. Hope you find a good trailer. We researched and shopped for a long time before finding just the right one and we have been very happy with it. It is important to watch the weights on what your truck is rated for and having enough carrying capacity in the trailer. We wish you the best and hope to see you on the road.

God bless,
Allan and Jeanne

Mallo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Dreamers wrote:

Does anyone know anything about the air ride 5th wheel hitches. They're very expensive and wonder if they are really worth their cost. I believe they are sold out of Celebration, FL. We have a goose neck hitch on the truck we bought and are really looking for a conversion for it since the gooseneck is rated for 25,000 pounds. There ought to be a way to use it to pull the fifth wheel we're looking for.

One is a 2010 Keystone Outback 33 ft and the other is a 2010 Heartland Sundown 34 foot. Does anyone have any experience with these?

-------------------------

Air ride 5th wheel hitches are very useful things as far as smoothing out the ride the heavier the fiver the more you might want one. Our 5th Wheel is rated up to 15,500 pounds and we run with a standard Husky hitch and a Demco Glide ride pinbox that combo works very well for our size 5th wheel.

There is a goose neck adapter you can get and I know of people who use them and love them. And as we have a flat bed a turn over ball hitch would of been the way to go but for the fact that we bought new. Nu Wa the maker of our 5th Wheel advises against them because their frame manufacturers will void the frame warranty if you use one. Since Lippert makes most of the frames out there I suspect this would apply to anyone else using those frames your going to want to check that.

Keystone Outback and Heartland Sundown we looked at both. Not enough storage in those rigs for what we'd want to carry. I suggest that when you find them sit in them for a good long time (an hour plus is what we did with our short list of rvs) and figure out where everything will go.

Also again check the warranty I doubt those two models are warranted for beyond seasonal use. I may be wrong but the time limits on use per year was a bit of a shock on some of the units we were looking at. Units the sales reps were suggesting as "the perfect full time unit", yet if something went wrong and I was honest about full timing in it I'd not be able to get repairs done...... I hate having to remember what the truth is supposed to be.

Mallo

Dreamers · RV-Dreams Family Member

Alan and Jeanne

We can't wait! Do you mind if I ask where you found your rig? We have our truck so have to fit the rig to it. Have you had any problems keeping Alabama as your home base? That is what we intend to do. Will be using the UPS store here in Tuscaloosa for our mail.

Thanks so much for your reply!

Judy

-- Edited by Dreamers on Tuesday 15th of December 2009 03:07:30 PM

Dreamers · RV-Dreams Family Member

Mallo, thanks so much for your input. This rig thing is really getting to us. We found a new 38 ft Jayco Designer over the weekend - had everything in it you could think of. But???? Do you know where we might find actual ratings and comparisons of different RV's?

Thanks, Judy

Mallo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Dreamers wrote:

Mallo, thanks so much for your input. This rig thing is really getting to us. We found a new 38 ft Jayco Designer over the weekend - had everything in it you could think of. But???? Do you know where we might find actual ratings and comparisons of different RV's?

Thanks, Judy

There is an RV consumers guide out there that is OK. I know a lot of people who really love the Jayco Designer (they were a bit longer then we wanted for the floor plans we liked).

Here is the RV ratings guide be careful there are fivers that get dinged because of the total weight assuming full tanks. Part of what you may want is large tanks which by RV ratings is going to hurt that unit as far as handleing goes.

Read and undersrtand how they arrive at the ratings.

http://rv.org/

Mallo