raisingarizona
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2020
I see. Generally RV’s are total junk.
RVs, Vans and Campers for Skiers
- Thread starter gorgonzola
- Start date
We used to do that. No offense taken.
We traveled all over the place from Quebec to Florida, and flew west and did more. With our kids over the years we did so in some sweet SUVs. A loaded 94 Jeep Cherokee Country, a loaded 03 Toyota 4Runner, a 05 Dodge Durango Limited (leather seats, DVD screens, headphones, reclining rear seats, satellite radio, GPS, memory seats etc...) and when the kids were gone a sweet Nissan Pro4X Xterra because we were off roading even more.
We bought our trailer so we didn't have to find a place that takes the dog. So we could go to Alaska and take weeks, and still always have a place to sleep in the middle of nowhere. Airbnbs and hotels get expensive and are farther from national parks, while campgrounds are in or nearly all of them. There is no schlepping luggage, my c-pap, packing and unpacking bags. We carry and use our own private bathroom and the wife can go whenever she needs to. No finding and using a god awful public restroom, a major Covid concern. Your can online shop, pickup, store and cook your own food without moving stuff from the car to the trailer. Hotels have cut back on breakfasts. If the weather gets really bad (and has) all the hotels will be full, while Walmart (and many other stores) have free overnight parking and can stay in a rest area or other parking area in a weather emergency. You can alter plans quickly to account for Texas being closed on account of weather without trying to get reservations. You can stay a few miles from Silverton at lower elevation at half the cost of a hotel. You can carry your own small generator and always have access to electricity and almost always the internet. I put my own cellular 4G antenna on top. It works on different carriers, and always seems to get a signal when my stupid phone won't.
On the other hand...
- You have to be able to drive and backup a large vehicle or trailer, but you learn.
- You find that you can't have a conversation going up a hill in your comfy luxurious SUV that has a safe fuel range of only 150 to 180 miles and gets only 6-8 mpg when towing a billboard shaped box that weighs the SUV's rated tow limit. So it gets traded for an even more luxurious 1500 Ram truck with the smaller (3.0 liter) turbo diesel and giant 33 gallon fuel tank. It gets 12 to 15 mpg towing and has a range of about 300 to 400 miles. Added bonus when not towing it gets 26-33 mpg.
- You need to buy a GPS that accounts for the over size thing your pulling... because Google (or was it Waze?) will take you down a road with a 9 foot high railroad overpass (true story) and make you practice those backing skills. At Night. Of Course.
- You still have to make campground reservations for the trip a few month in advance, and the prices are supposedly rising really, really fast and reservations are impossible to get. In actuality you find yourself paying $5 for a BLM or for National Forest site and $75 a night for a luxury seaside campground with a pool, boat launch and full hookups (water, electric and sewer).
- One night you sit in your front "yard" with your little propane fire-ring going (cause there's burn ban practically everywhere out west) and look up a the most stars you've ever seen in your life. Because you are sitting in a dark sky campground outside Big Bend National Park, and not in an AirBnb 40 miles away.
On the other hand, please keep using those BnBs everyone, cause I don't need you all filling up that free National Forest Service sights this spring.
And you get to laugh at your own stupidity when you wake up at 4 am and its friggin 20 degrees inside the trailer because you forgot to open the reserve propane tank the night before.
Without a shadow of a doubt. And depreciation kills you.
Except Covid. This year you could have sold a recent model (up to 5 years) used one for more than you bought it. Like any pickup or boat. The market is nuts.
Ripitz
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2020
It got down to -30 a couple times in Big Sky. The problem we had was that the batteries would go dead in the cold from pushing the heater fan all night so the heat would quit. We had to be up at 5:15 am to make it to work by 5:45 at the hotel for breakfast. It was like another world waking up in those conditions. We slept in hats and learned to keep our uniforms and clothes in the bed with us so we could get dressed under the covers. Dashing up what was known as ”the treacherous trail” in the dark, the only sounds was the squeaky snow from our hurried steps. It felt more like a game of survival than a commute even though it was only a 5 minute walk. One of the responsibilities of my job in the dining room was to light the fire in the massive fireplace first thing. I took great pride in that especially on those super cold mornings as it was serious business. Looking out the windows we’d watch the black sky turn blue. The mountain would slowly come to life. Seeing the first golden sun rays hitting the peak never got old. I never was a morning person but I always enjoyed the experience of those.
Last edited:
raisingarizona
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2020
Yes Ripitz, this is good! That’s some authentic ski bum stuff right there.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrr...
This is why we always try to hook up to electric in winter. Even if it's just 15 amps to keep the battery charged to run the furnace. Many RVers use small low BTU ventless propane heaters that don't need electricity. But they don't heat the underbelly and I don't trust them to sleep with it on. They use up oxygen, produce carbon dioxide and water vapor which condenses on the walls and windows. And if something goes wrong they produce deadly carbon monoxide. If I can't plug in, I'd rather run a small generator, outside for brutally cold nights.
Propane heaters produce carbon monoxide.
Nothing has to go “wrong”.
Additionally, generators, camp stoves, space heaters, and other devices should be accompanied by specific instructions stating they are not to be used in enclosed spaces.
emphasis added
gorgonzola
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2020
This is a great thread! Love the RV info and the stories are great!
I always buy used campers and with the exception of one either got my money back or made a few bucks when I sold them.
Campers are shit though, I had to re-build the entire back half of one of the pop ups a few years back... but I take it over a hotel any day
Speaking of stories I really need to wrap up my GC trip report before the end of the year lol
I always buy used campers and with the exception of one either got my money back or made a few bucks when I sold them.
Campers are shit though, I had to re-build the entire back half of one of the pop ups a few years back... but I take it over a hotel any day
Speaking of stories I really need to wrap up my GC trip report before the end of the year lol
Ahhhh.... I knew we'd get around to the ever emotional topic of "ventless" propane fireplace and heaters!
These things, when they are working correctly, produce small amounts of carbon dioxide, quite a bit of water vapor, and trace measurements of several pollutants. No reputable study indicates that any of this stuff, including the carbon monoxide is being produced in levels even close to danger levels. Emissions levels are below the levels EPA allows in the average American city. We have one in our large house. We use it to take the edge off cold mornings, and as emergency back-up heat. HOWEVER the house has an air exchange system, and we keep a window cracked. BUT these things burn whatever else is in the atmosphere along with the supplied propane and oxygen. . . Cleaning products, candle smoke, dog dander, hair spray, out-gassing formaldehyde from building parts and construction glue. And that last one makes their use in a trailer so fricking problematic. There is not much space or air and the things are glued together foam and particle board. Not a good environment for using a "ventless" heater.
Note they use the marketing term "ventless", as in less venting, not "no" venting.... and they are marketed as nearly 100% efficient, but having to provide venting means they aren't.
