Isn't A 4 Season RV About Equal To A Mobile Home? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Isn't A 4 Season RV About Equal To A Mobile Home?

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

You are right, Cathy. I think that a mobile home actually has more insulation than the average RV. Perhaps a lot more. Back in 2005, we took a two week vacation and went to Yellowstone and then on to Idaho. Knowing how cold it got in Wyoming, I was amazed at the number of mobile homes that were even in the major cities along I-80. I don't think I would want to stay up there very long, even in our Mobile Suites with 3 1/4 inch walls.

Terry

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

When I was in Anchorage, some people were bringing up RVs for living quarters since there was a housing shortage in some areas that had very high wages. I don't know how they did and I'm betting they weren't comfortable but I do understand that sometimes you have to do what you have to do but I'm hoping to be more or less past that point. My concern is that some people may get the wrong idea about "4 seasons" and I am convinced that the "4 seasons" that the manufacturer was thinking about was not the desert in the summer or the far north in the winter.

kb0zke · RV-Dreams Family Member

Maybe it depends on which four seasons one is talking about. I suspect that for some, they are spring, summer, fall, and road construction. Others may have different seasons in mind.

Sushidog · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm living in a mobile home now with much poorer construction and insulation than a typical 4 season RV for instance all "4 season" RV's that I know of have double pane windows. My single pane windows in my mobile home leak like a sieve. The floors are wobbly, soft in places and too cold to walk on in bare feet when it's cold out - and I live in Louisiana. One nice thing about a mobile lifestyle is you can "move where the weather suits your clothes" like the song says. You can find shade in the summer, and move to high altitudes and northern climes when it's too warm out. The warmer southern US cities (and Mexico) fill of RVers when the weather turns cold, minimizing the temperature difference between the inside and outside temps. Parking your rig out of the wind makes a big difference in maintaining your inside temps too. Though not a full-timer yet, I plan on snowbirding as I hate the cold and don't intend to be anywhere it stays frozen in the winter - there's plenty of warm weather season for visiting those places.

Chip

Alie and Jims Carrilite · RV-Dreams Family Member

Most of the typical mobile homes, 14x70 (fleetwood,clayton,oakwood, etc) are built to HUD codes or state codes depending on the minumium requirements. Florida state regs are tougher than HUD because of hurricane wind load, etc.
Meanwhile most RV's are built to withstand a continous earthquake, with decent insulation and systems designed to keep you reasonable warm or cool. Even the bottom end rv's are better than HUD codes

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

A lot of people cannot move due to work commitments and I just feel that those purchasing understand that living in the north in a RV is going to be rough and that the term "4 season" might be misleading to some. I'm not sure about the "continuous earthquake" unless this just means going down the road since I saw what the earthquake did to steel beams in a warehouse in AK and I'm pretty sure no RV is up to that.

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

There is a converted RV park up here in NH that allows nothing but park models and it is full year round......it will depend on where the mobile home is built as to its needs for insulation.....mobiles built in Fla would not survive a new england winter and mobiles from Maine would be to costly to ship to Fla.

Mobiles in Minn. are really Igloo's....

Alie and Jims Carrilite · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm referring to pulling a rv down the road as far as it being continously shook.

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Jims carrilite wrote:
I'm referring to pulling a rv down the road as far as it being continously shook.

I knew that is what you were saying but keep in mind that some people take things literally just as they take "4 season" too literally. Snow load not to mention that in freezing rain, the door can freeze shut especially with a wind. I noticed that some here are buying a specially heated water hose. Another thought is that the power can go out and without being able to generate your own power, it creates an emergency situation. Last year, we were in a city that lost power in bad weather and they ran out of fuel in town, a town of over 8,000 people. We lived in the desert in AZ and even in a well-insulated mobile home with a brick foundation, when we lost power in the summer, it took a very short time before we were in trouble with the heat and I can't imagine being in an RV. We have done two minor hurricanes, one in a TT and one in a 5th wheel and it was a thrill and we don't regret it but I do not recommend that anyone do that. Mother Nature's temper lately means a little extra planning as nearly everywhere we have been, I kept hearing "Well, the weather usually isn't like this."

kb0zke · RV-Dreams Family Member

A few years ago SW Missouri had a major ice storm. Here in Dallas County the question wasn't "Did you lose electricity?" but rather "How long were you out?" EVERYONE lost power for at least a few hours, most for a few days, and some for a few weeks. That was one factor in our decision to go with a motor home. I keep the fuel tank full, the propane tank is also full, and we could live in the coach if we had to. Oh yes, after the ice storm I bought a $2000 generator and built a $20,000 garage to keep it in. Haven't needed it since. The garage, though, has filled up with stuff that we now need to make go away. How did that happen?

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Having been in the ice storms that put out the electricity in SE KS, it is always concern with severe cold or heat if you can't relocate. We moved from that house 1 1/2 years ago into our pop-up camper while house hunting, the power went out and the gas stations in town ran out of gas pretty quick and who would have thought that would happen.

I do wonder how this severe cold weather we are having might be having an effect on the RVing population that cannot relocate. It has to be rough in some areas and I would think after one lives through that, they might be rethinking locations or types of RVs even RVing at all. I don't remember living anywhere, including AK and MI, and it being such a bitter cold.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

kb0zke wrote:
A few years ago SW Missouri had a major ice storm. Here in Dallas County the question wasn't "Did you lose electricity?" but rather "How long were you out?" EVERYONE lost power for at least a few hours, most for a few days, and some for a few weeks. That was one factor in our decision to go with a motor home. I keep the fuel tank full, the propane tank is also full, and we could live in the coach if we had to. Oh yes, after the ice storm I bought a $2000 generator and built a $20,000 garage to keep it in. Haven't needed it since. The garage, though, has filled up with stuff that we now need to make go away. How did that happen?

David,

To steal from a movie, which I think was called "Field of Dreams." "If you build it, they will come."

In your case, you built the shed and all the stuff came. It is the exact same effect of selling a home with a two-car garage and then buying one with a 3-car garage. The garage gets just as full with respect to the available space. It's all kind of like making more money, and thus, one spends more money.

Terry

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

SnowGypsy wrote:
Having been in the ice storms that put out the electricity in SE KS, it is always concern with severe cold or heat if you can't relocate. We moved from that house 1 1/2 years ago into our pop-up camper while house hunting, the power went out and the gas stations in town ran out of gas pretty quick and who would have thought that would happen.

I do wonder how this severe cold weather we are having might be having an effect on the RVing population that cannot relocate. It has to be rough in some areas and I would think after one lives through that, they might be rethinking locations or types of RVs even RVing at all. I don't remember living anywhere, including AK and MI, and it being such a bitter cold.

Cathy,

We've been down to about 8 degrees here in Oklahoma City this winter. We've done just fine by taking some simple precautions. We did go and buy one of those heated Pirit hoses and even in 8 degree weather, the hose did fine simply being wrapped in an insulated foam "split-tube." In the ice storm we are currently experiencing, the roof and sides of our coach is coated in ice because of the freezing rain. Since our dog is nearly blind from cataracts, we have to carry him outside whenever he needs to go out. In my trips out with him, I've not noticed a lot of melting off the sides, so I'd say we are just fine in keeping our heat in.

I guess this winter is a "testing period" for when we move to Colorado next year.

Terry

Alie and Jims Carrilite · RV-Dreams Family Member

Careful with those icicles Terry, One might not hurt but 3-4 might leave a headache.

"Oh whats that that hit me on my head" As I turn and Look up and get poked in the eye. biggrin

-- Edited by Jims carrilite on Saturday 21st of December 2013 03:55:10 PM

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

biggrin Now thats what I call...."Miller on Ice"....just want to know tho, is that Draft or Tap ? biggrin biggrin smile smile

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Terry: The storm is hitting you harder than up here. I have been watching the radar off and on today. Well, you can make some hot chocolate and really mean it when you are singing "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.........". There is a crew with maybe not the best units out in the campground that are here working some contract and hopefully, they have went off on a Christmas break. We have been in an ice storm in an entry level trailer and we did OK. Your trailer surely seems to be doing well and better to know now than after you move somewhere and realize day in and day out that it just isn't doing what you hoped.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Lucky Mike wrote:
Now thats what I call...."Miller on Ice"....just want to know tho, is that Draft or Tap ?

Funny, Mike. But in our case, it would have to be some form of tee-totaler. Neither of us drink, although as a young man, I did my share.

Cathy, We've actually been very lucky here in Oklahoma City. Our area of Oklahoma is only getting about an inch of ice, but it is on everything. Where we have really been fortunate is that while there have been trees go down, we've not had the winds to whip the highline wires, thus large areas losing their electricity.

Terry