Tools

Two weeks ago I wrote about my tools and what needed to go on the road with us and what could be purged along with tons of other things. I'm struggling with what to take and how much it all weighs. Well last week I took the scales down to the garage and weighed everything. It seems I'm already at 260 pounds and I'm still not done. Guess I need to take another look at what all I'm taking.

From the many internet sites I've looked at here is a list of tools you might find helpful when traveling in your RV. This is by no means a complete list and you might want to delete or add some other tools.

Screwdrivers, Phillips and slotted several sizes of each.
A good selection of Robertson and Torx Bits
Cordless Drill/Driver
Nut Drivers
Adjustable Wrenches a 6”, 8”, and 10” should do
A set of Open End/ Box Wrenches
Vise Grips small and large
Pliers regular and needle nose small and large
Socket Set
Soldering Iron
Assorted Connectors
Fuses
Multi Meter
Several 120 Ext. Cords
Replacement Bulbs, think about switching to LED
Water Heater Element and Deep Socket
Teflon Tape
Plumbers Putty
Utility Knife
Hack Saw
Small Hand Saw
Small Pruning Saw
Wire Brushes assorted sizes
Wire Strippers, some spools of 12v and 120v wire
Ty Wraps
Duct Tape
Gorilla Tape
Elect. Tape
A/C Duct Tape
Silicone for sealing leaks
Caulking Gun
Rivet Gun and assorted rivets
Flash Light
Level 6” and 2'
Shovel
Axe
Rake
Assorted Nuts, Bolts, and Screws

Remember only you know what you'll feel comfortable traveling with and if you'll really need some of these things. I like to follow the Boy Scout Motto “Be Prepared” but you also have to be aware of weight. That's where I'm at now. Like I said earlier, my tools weight 260 pounds at this time so I'm not sure to purge some or just go with what I've got. Anyway I've added two really good videos I think will help anybody make up their mind.

I will say two very good videos I've watched about tools on the road is Tools and Maintenance Items for the Full Time RV Life by Ray at Love your RV  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmAJXK8Gwt8
and An RV technicians guide to the Best Tools for an RV by Chris Dougherty.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy9ozNqG6m


                        Safe Travels and I Hope To See You Down The Road

God made Life a Gamble

This past weekend Barb and I went to a concert in the park to see Joe Diffie. If you're not a country music fan then this might be lost on you. He played all of his greatest hits and then some. Everybody there had a great time in spite of the rain.



Joe Diffie

Anyway, (an this might be a stretch) one of his songs is called “Ships that don't come in”. It's about the struggles service men and women can have when they return from duty. Drinking, drugs, not able to find work, mental health issues.

A line in the song goes “God made life a gamble, and we're still in the game.” Barb and I are still RV Dreamers but we plan to make it to Fulltime RV'ers before the end of the year. Now I'm not trying to compare our struggles with any service person. No struggle could come close to what they might have gone through.

We all struggle in one way or another, plenty of unanswered questions still ring in my head every day. The biggest of course is can we do this financially? All RV Dreamers have unanswered questions and worry about making the right choice when faced with one of a hundred problems that we all know is going to pop up as we try our luck in exploring this country or whatever your idea of fulltiming will be.

I've read hundreds of blogs and forum entry's about RV'ing to know there is NO right answer for everybody. Some folks say they need $5000.00 a month to live this lifestyle, while others post they live quite comfortably on $1500.00 to $2000.00 a month. So who's to say which ones are right and wrong. God sure did make life a gamble.

But isn't life suppose to be a gamble? Who can say staying in a house that never moves is the right choice in life. We've played that game, and honestly. I'm tired of it. I'm ready for something new, something to inspire me, something to make me want to get out of bed in the morning. Every Morning. We're still in the Game. We just want a different game to play.

I'm not so naive to think life will become a bed of roses when we get on the road, even roses have thorns. Just because we will be living in a recreational vehicle doesn't mean we won't have struggles, of course we will. I'll still need to work somewhere, just not as much as I am right now. And as long as I'm able to be in the game, I feel the gamble is worth it.

As a kid growing up my dad seemed to have a saying for everything about life. Yes I remember most of them. Especially, “Can't never did do anything.”
Well I CAN and I Will some way, some how. And I hope you Stay In The Game and take your Gamble along with us on the road.

Safe Travels and I Hope To See You Down The Road

One big step forward.

Its OFFICAL, the house is up for sale.

  One more step forward in our quest to get on the road fulltiming before the year is gone. It has been a wild ride just getting to this point. So many decisions still to make but I'm thinking most of them will take care of themselves when the time comes.

I think my brain may turn to mush before we get there. We're still discussing (debating) actually what type of RV we want to get. Looks like it will be a 5^th. Wheel, at least we can agree on that. 

Anyway, we continue to purge and sell off everything we own. It seems like a juggling act trying to figure out when is the right time to sell the dining room set. We've already sold the kitchen table so do we keep it till the very end or eat in front of the television. Then there's the living room furniture, I guess we could set on the camping chairs the kids got us last year. That could be a little uncomfortable for who knows how long as we wait for the house to sell.

I won't sell our bedroom set or at least the bed until the very end because I WILL NOT sleep on the floor if at all possible. Of course we do have a air mattress (from our tent camping days) so maybe it could go after all.

Talking about stuff I won't sell, let's talk about tools. Now I don't claim to be a master mechanic but going on the road means taking care of a lot of fixes and repairs to save a little money. I've read a bunch of articles about what some guys refuse to leave behind. The main concern seems to be how much all those tools weigh. I've not weighed my tools yet but I think I might be a little overweight. Actually I think they are way over weight. That's a purge I'll have to deal with at a later date. I hope I'm not trying to hang on to them for no reason. After all I'm not Tim the ToolMan Taylor.

                          Safe Travels and I Hope to See You Down the Road.

Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts on getting on the Road Fulltime

So the purge continues. We had another garage sale this past Saturday. I know our neighbors must be thinking “Just how much junk do these people have?”

Well evidently, quite a lot. Well to be honest we've been married now for I think 18 years and we were both married before. So yes we do have a whole bunch of stuff to get rid of. Funny thing is even while we seem to be selling lots of stuff, we still seem to have a lot left. The garage doesn’t look like its getting empty at all. Could we be growing more junk some how?

I don't think we are over pricing our stuff, as a matter of fact I think we might be under pricing on lots of things. But my thought is we want to get rid of this stuff not haul it off to Goodwill or some other thrift store. Barb has had the hardest time. She has a lot of collectables as in Longaberger Baskets, as in they were very expensive. Of course nobody wants to give you what they are worth so there's haggling going on and Barb HATES to haggle. Especially when she's on the wrong end of the haggle. I will say she seems to be adjusting pretty well and understands we are moving from 2000 square feet of house to about 250 square feet of house and we can only take so many baskets with us. I wont even start with her Precious Moments figurines. Enough on garage sales.

We're going to become fulltime RV'ers. As a matter of fact, if you look on the left side of what you are reading right now I have a countdown timer that shows 202 days before we leave on our new lifestyle. That was as of Sunday 4/27/14. That's only about 7 months from now. Wow, less than a year from now and I'm going to be homeless and unemployed. You know that little devil that sat on your shoulder and tried to get you in trouble and told you you can't do this or that. Well he seems to be holding a party on my shoulders because I'm having all kinds of doubt about this whole thing. I'm trying to not listen to him because I've crunched all the numbers in the budget, I've looked at so many budgets and blogs from other fulltimers that I think I might need to see my eye doctor again real soon. The bottom line is I just can't find any reason why we can't do this. We will still need to work some to enjoy this new lifestyle but again I can't see any reason not to do it.

We're still up in the air about which type of camper will work best for us and now I'm starting to take a hard look at fiberglass campers. Yes I'm talking about Casita's and a whole line of other brands. I've found one 25 footer by Bigfoot that looks pretty good. The main thing about fiberglass campers are they are two piece construction. A bottom half and a top half. Meaning there are no seams to leak up on the roof. They don't seem to be four season campers but I don't plan on spending any time up north during the winter either. One big advantage is a smaller tow vehicle which can be used for storage also. This could be a uphill battle because Barb is still dead set against anything that looks like a Casita. Stay tuned the war rages on.

         Safe Travels and I Hope to See You Down the Road.

 

Which Brand for Us?

We took a little road trip this past weekend so I didn't get to put a lot of thought into my blog this week until we got home. What I did do was think a whole bunch about our weekend road trip. Now keep in mind this was the last weekend of March and a lot of spring breakers were heading back to school from Florida beaches and other points of interest of young people. Also the famous Snow Birds were heading home somewhere up north. So needless to say the interstate was quite crowed.

  Thinking about all the traffic Barb and I saw, we spent a lot of time looking at the different brands of RV's we were passing as we headed the other way. We didn't keep track of the different rigs flying down the road so nothing in this blog entry is scientific research. Not that I do a lot of scientific research, at least not anymore.  OK, I never did.

  We saw Crusaders, Open Range, Denali, Forest River and just about every other brand of RV that has ever been built, even quite a few Air Streams. We saw a wide range of Motor Homes, Class C's and B's and 5^th. Wheels. We saw Travel Trailers of all ages. We also saw our fair share of Casita trailers that all Barb would say was “No, I will not live in one of those”.

  I will say this, Montana Cougar was the most seen recreational vehicle on the road this weekend. Does this mean Cougar is the most popular of all RV's out there. I don't think so. OK I don't want to start an argument. Just saying that's the rig we saw the most of. Again not a lot scientific research went into any of this.

  There's just to many options and floor plans available for anybody to say what's the best rig out there. There's to much personal preference involved for anybody and I mean anybody to say what's the best RV for you. Only YOU can say what's best for you.

  We are still RV Dreamers, hoping to be on the road by the end of this year. Seeing all those RV'ers heading somewhere only fortified me even more that I will do this just as soon as possible.

  And just so you know Barb has narrowed down the choices to Crusader, Wildcat 327, Heritage Glen 327, and yes the Cougar front living. You know the list might change again by next week. I just never know.

                    Safe Travels and I Hope to See You Down the Road.

Check it Twice

Check it Twice

We haven’t even got on the road yet and I already have countless checklists. What to look for when you pull into a campground, what to do when you pull out of a campground, what steps to take before emptying your storage tanks. Not to mention the PDI checklist.

This is the pre-delievery inspection walk through with somebody from the dealership. The most important part of this walk through is this (Don't Let Them Rush You Through This). This is the inspection of the soon to be your RV. Also don't sign anything until you are satisfied that any and ALL problems are fixed or if they are minor can be fixed at a later time.

You will want to have them show you how everything works and I do mean everything. Some people take lots of notes, some people will video the PDI and refer to it later. You will want to make sure they put water in the tank so you can test the system, making sure the water pump works. You will want to look under the sinks for any leaks. As a matter of fact check in all cabinets, the manufacturer could run water lines through any and all cabinets.

You will need to bring a few things with you to make your walk through as smooth as possible. A small electrical tester to check the outlets throughout the RV, a flashlight will come in handy when checking for leaks inside those cabinets, coveralls if you plan on crawling under the rig. Make sure the dealership has installed a fully charged battery so you can check the 12v lights.

This is by no means a complete list of things to look for, you can find all kinds of checklist on the internet. Look at a lot of them. Most will be repeats of what you have already seen, but you might find something different on the next one you see. Of course the very most important thing not to forget is your traveling companion. Forget them and You're in for a long trip.

Safe Travels and I Hope To See You Down The Road.

TAKE ONLY PICTURES

TAKE ONLY PICTURES, LEAVE ONLY MEMORIES

Years ago when I was Scoutmaster of Troop 412 in Largo, Florida the Scouts had a motto. Not the one “Be Prepared”. Of course we could all live a better life if we were prepared. I'm talking about a program the National office rolled out. It was called

No Trace Camping.

In a nut shell it said If you Pack it in, Pack it out. Or leave no trace you were ever there to begin with. This is a bigger concern when boondocking than when camping in a private campground or any established campground. But then you have to ask why are workampers in high demand to clean campsites. 

When pulling into a campsite the first step should be to walk the site you have chosen before pulling or backing in. Pick up any trash you find beforehand. It will make your clean up at the end of your stay that much faster. Besides, who wants to set up camp at a trashy site and live with it. 

Our scouts were taught to prepare a proper fire ring whenever we went camping. We always ringed our fire site with rocks so everybody knew right where the fire ring was. We also had a bucket of sand a bucket of water and a shovel next to the fire ring in case the fire got out of hand. 

The only firewood to use should be found on the ground, brought with you or purchased from the campground if available. You should never place anything into a fire that won't burn completely. Hence the saying pack it in, pack it out. Always clean your fire ring before leaving.

I think the point I'm really wanting to make is, We all have this great big country to explore and see. Wouldn’t it be a lot nicer and enjoyable if we could enjoy sitting next to a little stream up in the mountains without a lot of trash around us. How about hiking a trail in the Smokey Mountains without seeing cigarette butts or candy wrappers everywhere you look

I think we can all take a few lessons from the boy scouts. We should all try to leave our campsites as clean or cleaner than we found them. Remember somebody else will be pulling into this site pretty soon.

So try to remember, Take only Pictures, leave only Memories.

Safe Travels and I'll See You Down the Road.