RV Flooring Replacement–Tools Needed…

One of the main reasons we booked a month in our former home town in College Station, Texas was that we planned to remove our old flooring and install new flooring. I have experience in laying flooring so I was up for the task even though I knew the RV flooring would be quite challenging due to how the flooring was initially laid and because of all the intricate cuts required.

Why are we replacing our flooring? Well we  are replacing our flooring to address three different issues.

1. When we first bought the RV there was evident water damage in our hallway because the previous owner apparently left the windows open during a rainstorm. We had replaced the rippled wall covering some years ago with some wainscoting while in Red Bay Alabama. We were certain there was also some water damaged wood below those two hall windows.
2. We have one engineered tile in our hallway that had “domed or bubbled up” that really needs to be replaced.
3. We have several places that “creak” when we walk on the floor which needs to be addressed.

Our current flooring has been discontinued so there went my idea of working in only the hallway to replace the flooring with its exact style.. So we will replace all our fabricated wood flooring and while we are at it we will remove a lot of the carpet and convert it to fabricated tile flooring as well. This will make Sharon happy as she hates the carpet. I felt mixed about carpet as I love it in the bedroom but could certainly be happier with less of it in the living space.Phase 1 will be replacing the flooring and phase 2 will be carpet replacement (which we will do another day).

As most of you may know, flooring in an RV is laid down on the floor before any of the interior cabinetry or furniture is put in. Some people simply install new flooring overtop the old flooring but this would not only add additional weight to our RV it also wouldn’t solve the wood rot or creaking sounds in the sub-floor.Therefore we decided to rip out the old flooring to reveal what lies beneath it…

Accomplishing the job can be done much more efficiently with the right tools and I certainly didn't have all I would need. I figured my options would be to rent the necessary tools or purchase some to do the job right. I will explain how I used these tools later on. I ended up buying the two tools below as rent options were overpriced or in the case of the toe kick saw not an option. .

• Toe Kick Saw – used to cut flush against the existing walls and cabinetry
• Multi-Tool – used to cut corners and other difficult to cut areas as well as utilizing it for its oscillating scraper capabilities

Other tools that I have that are going to be needed are:

1. Rubber Mallet
2. Pry Bar
3. good quality 6 inch joint knife
4. Large Pliers or Capet Staple Remover
5. Phillips Head Screwdriver
6. Electric Drill
7. Specialty bits for extracting specialty screws/bolts
8. Skill Saw with carbide tipped blade
9. Extra cutting blades for the multi-tool
10. 2 or 4 foot level (I had both already) – also serves as a straight edge
11. Box Cutter with extra blades 
12. Chalk Line
13. Tape Measurer
14. Dust Mask and Safety Goggles

This blog is long enough so I delve into more details in the next blog or two explaining why I needed these tools and how they were useful. I realize it will be tedious back breaking work but I feel it will be worth it in the end!

NOTE: We are currently in our former home town, College Station until May 7th. My plan is to replace our flooring and have a little fun along the way…

How to find your perfect RV Campground…

One of the comments in the last blog asked a question about how we find the parks to stay in. I assume it is because we often find some reasonably priced parks that are a bit off the beaten path. I thought his would be a good opportunity to detail how we go about finding parks we stay in. What I do to locate our next stay is probably much the same as many others use but we all look for different things when selecting parks. To discus our methodology I'll use our current park, Point Mallard Campground, as an example of how we choose our next location.
Our Search Criteria:

• Distance to the next park needs to be less than 200 miles and preferably under 150

• Next I consider the parks within 3 miles of the preferred road we are traveling

• I also look for areas of interest along the route such as neat towns, scenic places to hike and bike or other areas that will provide a means of distraction during our stay

After we have selected a preferred route next up is to search for parks along the road we plan to take bearing in mind we may have more than one route.  Having multiple routes allows maximum flexibility since we rarely make any advanced reservations.  For example when we were leaving Nashville, TN I had three routes chosen to go south and searched all three routes.
Tools Used to Find Parks:

• Microsoft Street and Trips with the Mega POI

• US Campgrounds website (yielded the park we are in now)

• Ultimate Campgrounds website

• Google Maps using a search for campgrounds sometimes yields a bonus campground not found otherwise

A list of all parks considered will yield some being eliminated based on prior knowledge or a dislike of particular type of parks. For example we tend to avoid KOA’s and Jellystone Parks. We find KOA’s too pricey for the usually very small, tight sites and well, Jellystones simply have way too many children thus are very noisy.
Tools Used to Narrow Down Park List to a few select parks:

• RV Park Reviews website is by far the best tool we use

• other web sites such as Woodalls, RV Buddy, RV Camp Reviews are used if the first bullet doesn’t have info on the park

Once I have used the above tools I usually end up with a list of 3-5 parks in various locations along the route. Then I will read about the park on their web page and also research what is nearby to keep us entertained. This may or may not lead to some parks being eliminated but what it does do is puts them in an order from most preferred to least preferred. The last thing I do is perform a Google search with the park name in double quotes and the word blogspot or wordpress. One search for each word, blogspot or wordpress, will often yield blogs written by other travellers who have written about the park illuminating some precious tidbits about the park such as good restaurants, pubs, breweries, parks etc. nearby. In the case of the park we are in now there is a wildlife refuge nearby, extensive hike and bike trails, huge community park, and waterfront access within walking distance. Also close by are larger towns with amenities we like such as Crafted Beer, Colleges, Parks, and other things of interest such as this pedal tavern in Nashville...
Now If nothing stands out as a cool place to stay after all the above work I simply expand the range around our preferred route up to 5 miles, then up to ten until I find a gem, for us!
That is how we found this little gem of a park we are in now in Decatur, Alabama… We like this one so much that we have just extended our stay here for an additional week. Hopefully this information helps some of you looking for your gem of a park to stay in.

Spring Cleaning…

ED. Ms. Heyduke pens today’s blog!

Just as in our sticks and bricks home, Springtime gives me the urge to clean. As careful as we are with the carpet by protecting it with rugs, taking off shoes before entering and regular thorough vacuuming, the carpet still was looking dingy to me. I also really wanted all the throw rugs, cleaned as well as the RV valances, curtains and upholstery. While we were at it, we could also do the interior of the car. I was on a roll…

I suggested buying a brand new portable steam cleaner, but with our rule about acquisitions being that to get something we’d have to get rid of something; I found I just could not part with anything. This left the dilemma of what to use. John researched the various rental options as well as inquiring about a professional coming to our site and doing it all for us. The bids we got for the carpet alone ranged from $99 and up! Therefore, economically, it proved better to put in the work and do it ourselves. We decided on the Rug Doctor that we could rent from our local grocery store. With a coupon, the machine and the upholstery attachments came to $27.50 plus tax. We were allowed 24 hours from 11am to 11am the following day.

Since my bout with cancer, I am all about green cleaning so I read about using white vinegar and water in the machine. Vinegar loosens the dirt without the use of chemicals and doesn’t leave a soapy residue behind. Man, did it work like a charm! It was alarming to see the color of the water in the holding tank after completing the living area. We decided to do the living area many times and the bedroom area three times. Next were the couch, the throw rugs and car mats.

The next morning before returning the machine we did the car seats and the drapes. I wouldn’t say the drapes came out totally clean (those pesky condensation stains on the inside lining), but the drapes did look better. John said to consider them as “refreshed”. I liked that! I must say John really did most of the work so I need not have any bright ideas for projects for a while, I think (smile).

It’s great to get these things done during our month-long stay in Texas. Now we can devote ourselves to planning our adventure out west……

Less than 20 days… Yikes!

Well I noticed today that we are winding down our working life and about to hit our retirement date. With all the unusually cold weather we haven’t been able to get a lot done.  The rig has been cleaned inside and out and is seemingly ready for her first trip. However, we have a few key things that must be done before we can leave.

I put up a punch list a few days ago and have been updating it as I get things done or as I realize something else that needs to be done. One thing not on the list that absolutely has to be done before we leave is to have the refrigerator serviced. Even though I asked the previous owner if he had taken care of the Norcold recall and he said yes… he didn’t.  I called Norcold with all the necessary info and they said it had not been serviced.  So now we have to wait till the part arrives (sometime next week it will be shipped) and have it installed.  We decided we will need a refrigerator before we leave :)

Another key item to get done is the baseplate on our toad.  It has been ordered and should arrive next week.  I have already spoken with a mechanic who said he would install it. Also, we have started selling our bigger items on craigslist. Our antique dining room set sold, along with an antique rocker, an antique sideboard, an outdoor wicker furniture set, my 42 inch flat screen TV :( and a few other items.  The last really big item that we must sell is our early 1900 English three piece bedroom set. Some of our keeper stuff has even been loaded into the RV.

We might make it down to the Houston RV show on Saturday since we can’t make an outing in the RV yet. We still have much to do and the clock is ticking…

Back to the punch list what is left?

A while back we made a punch list and now that there is less than a month before we take off it is time for to revisit it to see how we are doing and tweak it where necessary.  Below is our current punch list for now:

1. continue to opt out of paper mailers and bills where possible
2. stop all magazine subscriptions
3. switch to Verizon from our current AT&T provider will do after we leave
4. determine which TV network to use (DISH vs Direct TV) will do after we leave
5. determine which internet solution works best for us will do after we leave
6. sign up for select RV clubs signed up for Escapees and passport America
7. determine a mail forwarding solution (Escapees most likely)
8. sell the house (set a closing date) – select a realtor
9. buy an RV (determine where it will be if we close earlier than our departure date)
10. sell all the stuff a future home buyer doesn't want Very few pieces left
11. sell all the remaining stuff that won't fit into our RV Garage Sale for next weekend
12. solve the insurance issue for our home on wheels (American National most likely)   Overland Insurance was selected.
13. buy a tow vehicle
14. sell both our current vehicles – truck sold - sell the car
15. insure the new toad
16. find a towing solution for the toad  get baseplate on toad
17. learn to drive the RV
18. take a shakedown trip not going to happen
19. finish any mods or repairs necessary before we leave Appt with shop on Wednesday
20. determine which maps/books we need for traveling
21. plan our first route Started…
22. retire from our jobs :) :) :)
23. transfer our current retirement account to a vanguard account will do after we leave
24. say our goodbyes

Additions to our punch list:

1. Go to last doctor visit
2. Go to last dental visit
3. Go to last optical visit  Get new glasses
4. get a bike rack for the bicycles
5. fix the shifters on the brides bike Ordered the shifters today

Day before we leave punch list:

1. Cancel auto insurance on car that sold
2. Cancel parking for work
3. turn in work keys
4. find the 10 inch draw bar for a 2 inch hitch to attach bike rack
5. return bike rack part I thought I needed :)
6. forward work email to new address
7. turn in change of address to post office
8. sign and fax our motorhome insurance form
9. cancel our internet/tv service and return cable box and remote
10. make last minute deposits of checks from sold items
11. pack all the remaining items into the motorhome
12. final cleanup of the house
13. leave garage door openers in house
14. pack up the toad
15. on last night in house do last load of laundry
16. finish plotting route
17. morning of departure is appointment with mechanic to wire brake lights for toad

Still a lot remaining and we only have 24 days to get it done.  Looks like we won’t sell our house before we leave so we will turn it over to a realtor and let them sell it for us.  Also, we are thinking about having an auctioneer sell all of our remaining stuff in a living estate sale so we are starting to contact some…

We were hoping to be playing with the motorhome but with all this subfreezing weather and 1-3 inches of snow forecast tonight all I have had time to do is come up to speed with winterizing a motorhome…

RV Insurance… the comparison.

I took the liberty of filling out on line quotes for RV insurance on the web.  I got quotes from six companies.  The companies I solicited quotes from were all highly recommended from my scouring of the world web and and from reading the various RV related forums. I was interested in RV insurance for fulltimers – there is a huge difference in what it costs for this type of coverage as compared to what I call weekender coverage.

In order to be able to compare apples to apples I solicited quotes on the following items:

• liability - 100/300/50
• PIP - 5000
• uninsured motorist - 100/300
• comprehensive - 500 deductible
• collision - 500 deductible
• physical damage settlement options - agreed value
• custom equipment - 1000
• personal effects - 5000
• roadside assistance
• fulltimer liability - 100/300
• glass coverage – with deductible amount

The companies I received quotes from were:

• Victoria
• Progressive
• Geico
• Foremost
• Gilbert
• Overland

The quotes were fairly similar and ranged from 1176-1497. Research on the forums regarding claims made no clear winner emerge.So how did I decide? I selected the one agent who took the most interest in my situation and was one of the lower priced options… you may get different results. I hope this helps some of you looking for fulltimer insurance. Now all I need is an RV…

…guess who is going to Austin tomorrow to buy an RV?

Buying a motorhome from an individual…

Buying a motorhome is difficult enough without making it even more difficult. What I am saying is that buying a motorhome from an individual complicates things more than buying from a dealer. What makes it more complicated simply boils down to money and trust.  You are dealing with a lot of money in a motorhome transaction and it is necessary to extend a certain amount of trust.

I will share what is going on with this transaction. We are looking to buy a motorhome from a married couple who are giving up fulltiming and retiring to the sticks and bricks lifestyle. They have a lien on the motorhome and are upside down in their loan. So how does one make this work? I had some ideas of my own but I went to my trusted bank and got the experts opinion.

Now what made this deal convenient is his loan is at the same major bank as my bank account is so the transaction was going to easier as a result. My bank basically said that the process should go like this to protect me:

 

1. Obtain a Bill of Sale from the seller.

2. The seller should first pay the difference between our agreed upon sales price and the balance of the loan

3. The seller pays off their part of the loan and my bank will verify the remaining payoff of the loan which should be the agreed upon sales price (less earnest money)

4.I will then write a check from my bank to pay off the remainder of the sellers loan. The bank will provide photocopies of both checks from the seller and the buyer.

5.I will take possession of the motorhome and the deal is mostly done.

6. The seller will receive the title in 5-7 days and when they do they will mail the title signed by them to me.

So we plan to do all of this in one day at a bank between where they live and where we live.  We will each write our checks and they will turn the motorhome over to us. They suggested that I start my insurance on RV the day of this transaction. After I get the title I can take the bill of sale and the title to our local tax office and get the motorhome registered in our state.

Now you know why I don’t want to jinx it…. thought these details might help others in this situation…

Guess who put earnest money down on a motorhome?

Can’t say anymore about it because I don’t want to jinx it…. but wish us the best!!!

 

more to come later…

What could possibly go wrong… :)

Well you never know a deal is done until the deal is done… Our buyers backed out at the last moment… well actually they did have 7 hours left. So what does this mean to us?

Well for one thing it means we don’t have to move out of our house in mid July. And that my friend is a good thing! We looked everywhere in town (we live in a college town) and there was virtually nowhere that would rent to us for six months.  Now when you live in a college town all the apartment complexes think they will be able to rent to students coming into town for a twelve month lease.  They also believe they will be at 100% occupancy even though history suggests if they hit 90% it will be the mother lode… So other a a few places in the “hood” we could not find a decent place to stay.

So anyhow our buyers backed out at the the last possible moment.  So what did we learn from this transaction? First, we were in the right position to not sell unless we really needed to… (we didn’t); second, not all brokers are out for your best interest (I really thought their broker didn’t do a good job for them); third, have a better plan in place than we did in case someone wants to buy your house earlier than you possibly thought, and fourth, we need to get a motorhome soon in case this happens again.

The history…. we negotiated back and forth and thought we were giving them a great deal… lower than we originally thought! When it got down to brass tacks we finally decided that we were not desperate sellers and they had to meet our “fair” asking price… well, they didn’t. Instead they spent nearly $1,000.00 on inspections, termination fees, and title insurance and backed out of a deal they were within $1,200.00 of securing. Why? We will never know but we have decided it was best for us since we now don’t have to move out in mid-July. That was causing a lot of stress since we don’t retire till March 2nd, 2011.

So it is back to ground zero but we are wiser and slightly richer and wiser… they paid us $100.00 to terminate the contract and they also paid for three inspections… pests, A/C, and full house inspections… so we now have a checklist of all the possible bad things that prospective buyers might dislike… now all we have to do is take care of most of the repairs…… and find another buyer…

…that will not move in before September 1st    ;)

Things I have learned about tires…

Reading through the many blogs one becomes painfully aware of the fact that between you a good time is where the rubber meets the road… it is your TIRES! Tire blowouts are apparently no fun at all and can cause a tremendous amount of damage to the underside of your trailer or rig when they occur.  So what did I learn form reading all the blogs that talk about their experience with blowouts?

Three key things:

• Learn how to determine the age of your tires
• Install a Tire Monitoring System or develop a plan to always check tire pressure
• know what to do if you have a blowout before you have one

Why do I need to know the age of our tires? Well the older the tires are is one of the key factors that contributes to tires failing. Blog wisdom suggests that If your tires are more than seven years old they need to be replaced. So how do we know how old they are?  We need to know what the DOT number is on the tires (Easy to remember if you think DOT=date of tire :) DOT numbers are usually on the inside sidewalls so use a flashlight to find them. The last three to four digits of the DOT number tell us how old the tire is. If the DOT has three numbers they are older tires and the first two tell us the week of the year that the tire was made while the last number tells us the year it was made. Newer tires have four DOT numbers. Like before the first two numbers are the week it was made and the last two tell us the year. How useful is this! I was looking a a 2005 Winnebago Journey recently and was told the tires were less than two years old.  After looking at the DOT numbers on the tires and seeing 2104 I knew I was being told untruths too since the DOT number told me the tires were made on the 21st week of the year 2004.  This small untruth meant that I would need to spend two to three thousand dollars to replace tires on top of the price of the rig.  Also, it suggested there may be more untruths being told to me about this rig … needless to say I didn’t buy it.

Also, I plan to install a PressurePro Tire Monitoring System on my future home as well.  Again the blog wisdom suggests that no RV should be without a tire pressure monitoring system.  And from what I have read the PressurePro System is one of the best. It consists of a monitor and tire monitoring sensors.  The sensors screw onto the tire valve stems in place of the the valve caps. This allows us to always see the tire pressures before traveling and while traveling on the road we could be alerted when tires experience low pressure helping us avoid costly and dangerous tire blowouts. A must have in my opinion…

… and a last item about tires that is good to know is to better understand what to do if you experience a blowout…

Other exterior considerations…

I have focused on slides, walls, roofs in earlier blogs but there are a lot of other items on the exterior that require some thought. For example”
Windows

• Window type – I want double paned for insulation
• tinting – yes, yes and yes…
• awnings – yes and powered would be better
• seals – better be tight
• horizontal vs. fixed vs. vertical – horizontal please….

Awnings

• electric or manual – give me manual please
• slide out awnings – yes please

Exterior lights

• check them for proper operation headlights
• check to see if you have lights where you need them
• LED lights use less power and thus are great for boon docking

 Mirrors

• Make sure they are secure and not damaged
• Make sure they operate smoothly
• likewise with the windshield wipers

Ahhhh… but I am beginning to digress and cover things that should be check when buying an RV… but that is another story…

The Exterior of the RV…. basements

It is all about your CCC or Cargo Carrying Capacity.  The consensus  on the web is to allow for no less than 3000 lbs of CCC. So if we have adequate CCC then we need to focus on storage.  Do we want slides or no slides. 
The pros of having slides:

• convenience – easy to get to our stuff
• time saver – easy to get to stuff in the back of the storage compartment

The cons of having slide:

• reduces storage – they take up considerable space
• they are heavy – reduces you effective CCC
  
  
  

Also the quality of construction on the storage doors should be very carefully inspected for any damage and excessive wear. Check all exterior storage compartments for proper operation of doors and any signs of leakage. Also, we must consider whether or not we will need a heated basement and whether or not since we will at some point in time be stuck in less than favorable temperatures although we will do everything we can to avoid this). Is a pass through storage compartment really necessary? This will depend upon a couple of things – 1) what will be bringing that would require it and 2) what can be stored on our toad (i.e. via a roof rack or in the back of the toad). 

My gut feel is that we won’t need a pass through storage compartment and I am not sure we will really need the slides due to their reduced storage and increased weight.  Not to mention they are expensive to have installed if they aren’t already on the rig.  Besides I am fairly handy and can always add them myself at a later date as can be found in these links:
http://www.modmyrv.com/2009/01/03/rv-sliding-storage-cargo-tray
http://home.off-road.com/~cruiserhead/drawer/tlcbox.html

So the only critical thing we need in our storage compartments is one large enough to accommodate two rather bulky folding chairs.  As long as one compartment can handle that I believe we will be in good shape with storage…

The Exterior of the RV-walls and roofs...

So we have spent a lot of time thinking about the interior of our future RV but have not thought about the exterior much.  So what does the net have to say about RV exteriors and what we should be looking for?
Exterior Walls
Walls are either wood or aluminum framing. It appears as if wood framing is generally less expensive, more flexible, not a good conductor of outside temperature and relatively simple to repair. However wood walls may rot due to excessive moisture from leaks and wood has the potential for bug infestations.
Aluminum framing, on the other hand, is usually more expensive and more rigid but may require specialized equipment to make any modifications.  However it is not susceptible to rotting but may be susceptible to weak welds from shoddy workmanship. 
So there is no apparent winner here but it is important to know which type of framing the motor home has especially when performing any modifications to the structure.  Also, If you are told it is aluminum framing, then it is important to ask if all sides, roof, and floor are aluminum since there are some companies that state their units are aluminum when in reality they mean the some of the walls or just the roof may be constructed from wood. I have no preference here so we will just note what materials are used.
The Roof
Roofs are made from fiberglass, painted aluminum, rubber or vinyl.  Now after searching the web for the best roofing material I have come to the conclusion that they all suck! They will all either leak or fail over time so again it is important to note what type of roof you have so you will know how to maintain it to extend the life of the roof.
Fiberglass is popular among many but tends to be thin and can crack near the edges but it is very durable. Rubber roofs are cheaper and very durable but tend to chalk and over time they may shrink and crack.  The biggest knock on aluminum is the noise they transfer during rain storms. A more modern membrane roofing material is UV stabilized vinyl, which is a completely different than rubber or EPDM (older rubber roofing material).
Each roof type has it lovers and haters so there is no consensus here either. What you need to watch out for is the joints where the roof meets the rest of the RV especially around the vents and the front and rear cap joints. Those will need to be resealed at some time and visually inspected on a routine basis. Also where the roof meets the side panels is a potential point for leaks so this area may need to be reinforced with sealants. Again there is no consensus as to which roof wins out but there is a consensus that no mater which roof type you have you will eventually have a leak and you will eventually be using a product called Eternabond to patch it.  Eternabond is an expensive "near permanent" solution to rectify  infernally designed roofs. I will avoid EPDM and rubber and will prefer not to have aluminum but the roof type won't be a deal breaker.
So what did I learn about roofs and walls?  I learned to keep my caulk gun, read up on caulks, cleaners and  other sealants and prepare for the inevitable "My roof is leaking..." blog...