RV Travel Reader RVs, Feb. 18, 2017

February 16, 2017

Send a photo of your RV and a 150- to 200-word description of it, how and where you use it, and what you like or don’t like about it, to Diane (at) RVtravel.com . Be sure to include your name(s) and hometown, or if you’re a full-timer. (These are posted in the order received.)

The RVs of RVtravel.com readers and how they use them

Issue 72; Posted Feb. 18, 2017

Jimmy and Cindi Kidd, Full-timers

We sold our home in Roseville, California, and flew to Lazydays to buy our first and only coach. Prior to that we had a membership with Thousand Trails and we are finally getting proper use of it. We told everyone that we were going to do this for 3 years to see if it worked out. It’s been 7 years this April that we’ve been in our motorhome full time. Prior to this we had only tent camped, except for a two-night stay in my son-in-law’s 5er. Never doing that again.

The motorhome is a 2010 Tiffin Phaeton, model 40 QTH, which means that it’s 40 feet long, King size bed, 1 bath, 2 sinks, computer table set up, 2 Euro chairs and Queen size air bed in the sofa. We love the fit and finish of Tiffin motorhomes. One of our requirements when shopping was a floor plan with no vents in the floor. If you’ve ever stepped on one of those vents with your bare feet, you know why. Also, we wanted no carpet in high traffic areas. The tile floor makes for fast and easy cleaning with the built-in house vac. It has a tall shower with room to bring your hands on top of your head and room to turn around.

We look at new motorhomes all the time and walk away thinking that we see nothing that would make us change our minds. We do not use the gas cooktop that came with it. We use an induction cooktop that we added. We also have a residential refrigerator and 6 house batteries and a 20K generator. We needed room and we were going to be in a park 98 percent of the time.

We winter in Florida now, exclusively, after trying to alternate between Arizona and Florida for a few years. We put on about 10,000 miles a year visiting new places and family. We have 10 grandkids spread from California to Maryland. We find a few friends in campgrounds but are amazed at how grumpy some people can get, but it’s easy to ignore the grumps by just laughing at them.

We love this life and will keep doing it as long as we can. At that time, we will downsize and become snowbirds.

Good Sam Campground Guide
With more than 12,500 North American locations, the Good Sam RV Travel & Savings Guide is the only print directory of RV parks and campgrounds. The 2017 edition features expert ratings completed in the past year. Park listings include amenities, services, restrictions, rates, contact info, Good Sam discount locations, hundreds of dollars’ worth of Camping World savings and pages of helpful information. Learn more or order.

Mike Carlson and Tom Zachary, Nowthen, Minnesota

We just upgraded from a 2009 Big Horn to a 2017 35-foot Grand Design Solitude 300GK with three slideouts. We tow with a 2004 Ford F350 diesel with a crew cab with lots of space in the back seat for our dog. We were planning on a diesel pusher for our retirement but after walking into this unit and seeing the huge windows, residential fridge, and center island with dish washer, we did a 180 and now will retire in this camper.

So far we have no complaints and love all the features of the Solitude 300GK. However, we do wish the fresh water tank was a bit larger. 54 gallons of fresh water seems a bit small with 50 gallon black and 50 gallon grey tanks. The self-leveling system is awesome, especially for those late night arrivals. It cuts setup time to nothing. Push a button and we’re level.

We do about 14 trips a year right now. State parks are our favorites. Our retirement plans include Alaska, National Parks, and a tour of U.S. castles.

As for upgrades, the first nice spring day we’ll be installing 640 watts of solar panels and an AGM battery bank to support our boondocking plans for those southwest states we’ll be visiting to avoid the Minnesota winters. Future improvements include a generator. (Just need to figure out how big and where to put it. Any thoughts?)

Love your newsletter and the information you provide. We’ve learned a lot from reading it. Keep up the good work! (Thanks, guys.)

Happy Trails to you and your readers. —Mike and Tom

MORE IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS

Click here to see the last issue of RV Travel Reader RVs.

Comments

0 0 votes

Article Rating

Subscribe to comments

Name*

No anonymous comments. An initial plus first or last name is the minimum, we're all friends here.

Email*

Your real email is required. This will not show on your comment but is for us to contact you if necessary.

I have read the commenting rules for RVtravel.com. We monitor all comments for bad language or name calling. You will be blocked from commenting for 3 days if you use cuss words, adult language, hate speech or racial slurs. Did we block you by mistake? Send an email editor@rvtravel.com.

Please follow these rules when commenting on RVtravel.com. If you want to edit a comment click the gear icon to the right of your comment and choose edit, or delete. You have 24 hours to edit a comment.

I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy of RVtravel.com.

We occasionally update our terms and privacy policies pages so if you have not read them lately, we encourage you to do so. Thank you!

Name*

No anonymous comments. An initial plus first or last name is the minimum, we're all friends here.

Email*

Your real email is required. This will not show on your comment but is for us to contact you if necessary.

I have read the commenting rules for RVtravel.com. We monitor all comments for bad language or name calling. You will be blocked from commenting for 3 days if you use cuss words, adult language, hate speech or racial slurs. Did we block you by mistake? Send an email editor@rvtravel.com.

Please follow these rules when commenting on RVtravel.com. If you want to edit a comment click the gear icon to the right of your comment and choose edit, or delete. You have 24 hours to edit a comment.

I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy of RVtravel.com.

We occasionally update our terms and privacy policies pages so if you have not read them lately, we encourage you to do so. Thank you!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

	This comment is spam
	This comment contains swearing or mature themes
	This comment contains abusive/hate speech
	This comment contains dangerous misinformation (be sure before flagging please)
	This comment promotes self-harm
	This comment is off-topic - not about RVs or the post topic
	Other

MENU

RV Travel Reader RVs, Feb. 18, 2017

Comments

About

Get in touch