Travels with Ted shares RVing tips and tricks. Christina has been a full-timer RVers since 2016, traveling the country with her husband, Justin, and her dog, Ted. On this channel she shares advice for planning RV trips, conducting RV maintenance, the bets RV products and more!
Driver-any Class A, B, or C motorhome where you drive instead of tow. Class A-often the largest of the driver motorhomes measuring up to 40 feet. They resemble a bus. They come in both gas and diesel models. These would have a bedroom, some have bunk beds as well, a living area, full kitchen, and dining area. Some might have a washer and dryer. Some might have a full and 1/2 bath and some newer models now have 2 full baths. Class B-This one looks like a standard van. It is the smallest of the drivers. They usually have a small kitchenette, sleeping area, and a small bathroom. Some of the larger models may have a shower. Class C-Oddly enough this is in between Class A & B. It looks like a hybrid of both with a van like cab and a class A body. There are some Class C models that are as large as a Class A and have a chassis from a Freightliner semi truck. These tend to have the same amenities as a class A. Tow Behind: Any RV that needs to be towed by a separate vehicle. There are different types of tow behinds. Pop-up: This is literally what it is. When en route, the popup is completely closed but when you arrive at your campsite, you literally "pop up" the camper. These are generally like a class B driver where it has a small kitchenette and maybe a toilet with a curtain instead of an enclosed bathroom but many do not have toilets and you have to use the campground bath houses to do your business. They may have a small sleeping area or some of the larger ones have pop out beds. These are generally the least expensive options and most can be towed by a car. Hybrid-A hybrid is a tow behind trailer that has a kitchen, full bathroom, as well as a living area with a TV but not a dedicated bedroom. Instead it has pop out beds like a pop up camper. Travel Trailer-This is the common name for a run in the mill tow behind camper. It would have a dedicated bedroom, full bath, kitchen, living area with a sofa, and a dining area with either a table and chairs or a booth. These come in all shapes and sizes. Some have "bunkhouses" which is basically a bedroom for the kids 5th Wheel-These are the largest of the tow behinds. Some may be larger than some class A's. These usually have to be towed by a powerful truck like a Ford f-250 or larger. These are distinct in their design as there is a section of the camper that hangs over the bed of the truck where the tow package is. Often these resemble mini houses complete with 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms with the master bedroom being up the stairs which is in front of the rig. I've seen models with ceiling fans and kitchens with bars. These description are, of course, cliffnotes laymen's terms.
Thank you for this video! We also have an Ibex/No-Boundary, specifically a '23 Ibex 19MBH. I've been looking for a good video covering this. I'll use your coupon code when we check out. On a different note, have you had any issues with your front window leaking around the edges?
The water filter is a must, thanks for the tips! One item I need for my RV is my HomeFi router as I work remotely. It's been a lifesaver for living and traveling rurally.
☆Important TIp☆ Make sure your gate valves are CLOSED before removing the caps. Yup 😢....grey valve for our galley tank was open and full from our last trip. Picture, Fermented grey water in Georgia summer heat 🤮
Realistically unless you are hooking the city water hose up to someting with a higher pressure than city/well water pressure there is no risk of anything entering your water supply.
I wouldn’t trust a one way valve either way. There is a split second when the spring closes the valve that a tiny amount can get through. Always have a dedicated hose for cleaning the sewer lines.
Please for the love of sanitary water supplies don't use this device. You are much better off following whatever manufacture recommendations there are for flushing the black tank.
So... 60 day booking means? Does that mean you can not plan out more than 60 in advance or that you will be required to plan it out 60 days or you will not be able get a spot? This is confusing to me.
It means you cannot make a reservation more than 60 days in advance. If you are interested, use this form to contact the member specialists that I worked with and they will answer all of your questions! submit.jotform.com/241246745760055
Don’t use DAWN ON YOUR RV. It contains LOTS OF BIO CHEMICALS that are harsh on your finish. You should use a good auto detergent with lower chemicals… lots of new RVs come from factory with a seal DAWN detergent can penetrate that sealer….
RV seems enticing but it’s a very hard work I think. Depreciation of RV and cost of maintenance is probably high. I stay at hotels with full sized shower and bed with breakfast. Cheaper for me. If I go off grid a simple tent. That’s it.
Contrary to popular belief, owning a RV IS NOT an investment. Instead, it is a luxury expense. Depreciation is a big factor. RV's are labor intensive. Maintenance is constant to ensure upkeep, more so than your sticks and bricks. Full time isn't all that it's cracked up to be. You'll still need a "tax home". These days, fuel and parking will be your everyday expenses. Not cheap unless you want to squat in a Walmart parking lot every day.
Never said it was cheap, but it is worth it for the experiences for us. Our overall budget is similar to what we spent when living in a sticks and bricks, but now we spend more on fuel and travel
We are full time RVers living on SS, and a couple small pensions for about 1/3 of what it used to cost us to live in our old S&B home. Our homeowner's insurance and property taxes alone on our old home cost us more than we now spend on housing (campground and RV park fees) in 3 years! Our older coach and toad are paid for, and we are debt free, which helps a lot. By buying an older, one owner coach with extensive maintenance records we got a very reliable RV that hasn't seen the inside of a repair shop in the last 5 years. We only paid 15% of what this coach sold for new, letting the original owner suffer all the depreciation. We have no mortgage, utility bills, property taxes, homeowner's insurance, landscaping, garbage bills, cable bills, etc. We boondock most of the time, living almost entirely rent free on BLM and Forest Service land. We sometimes spend $180 for a 7 month permit to winter over at the LTVAs surrounding Quartzsite, AZ/Imperial Dam, Ca. For only 86 cents/day you get not only a safe, warm place to stay the winter, but unlimited water, dump and trash disposal too. You don't need a "tax home" but you do need a legal domicile state. This is where your vehicles are registered and insured, your driver's license is issued from, your bank is at, etc. The nice thing is if you currently reside in a high tax state you can move your legal domicile to a low tax state and enjoy the tax benefits thereof. If you research Escapees, establishing a domicile, they tell you everything you need to know to do it right. We boondocked for 8 months straight last year and will do so even more in the future as we just installed a huge solar system that allows us to be totally electrically independent. We lived FT off of only 620 watts of solar for 5 years, but we now have over 5,000 watts of solar and 23.5 kwh of batteries which provides 24/7 air conditioning and heat and lets us use our appliances just like we are plugged into a power pole at an RV park. This system wasn't cheap to build (around $10k) but now that it is installed, we have eliminated our electricity costs for the rest of our lives and greatly expanded the places and seasons we can live too. We usually boondock all over the western US, but we're in NC now visiting family where boondocking places are hard to find. So we found a nice RV park that is letting us camp in one of their spacious no-hookup sites for only $100/month. We dump our tanks and take on fresh water every 2 weeks at the dump station, just like when we are boondocking in the wilderness. When you have a large solar system, you have lots of options on how you choose to live. Fuel and food are our two biggest expenses, and both are controllable. If we find we are running low on funds we just eat out and travel less. But we never feel deprived. We live frugally most of the time so when the mood strikes us, we can go out and eat at an expensive restaurant, and not have it impact our budget. We travel a lot, so typically burn around $3,000-$3,500 worth of fuel for both coach and toad and eat $6,000-$7,000 of food in a year, though both could be reduced by 25-30% without much hardship, simply by traveling and eating out less. Propane cost us about $400 last year but should be under $300 this year since most of our heat is now provided by our solar/battery powered mini-split heat pump. Our insurance for both car and coach is right at $1,000 a year, plus another $109/yr. for our Escapee Roadside Assistance plan. Registration for both car and coach costs $80 every 2 years in our domicile state. Our FMCA unlimited AT&T wifi is $65/mo. plus whatever Netflix charges these days. We stream free TV from Roku, and our cell phone is only $27/mo.. Our mail forwarding service is $120/yr + postage. Laundry is about $300/yr. We do all our repairs, maintenance and upgrades ourselves to keep the price down. That said, repairs and maintenance average around $1,600-$1,700 a year on both our 1999 National Tropical Class A motorhome and 2006 Chevy Cobalt SS toad. We simply budget for routine maintenance items like tires. We purchased 8 new ones for our coach last year. We plan on doing so every 8 years as they age out before they wear out, so we put $300 a year into our tire fund so there's money there when we need it. Our healthcare is covered by a Medicare Advantage PPO plan (so we can see plan doctors around the country if needed) that is not only free but gives us back $130/mo. from what Medicare part B over charges us in addition to many other benefits. Our total FT budget is around $33k, but our actual expenses run around $29k-$30k out of $44k in income, allowing us an adequate emergency fund without dipping into savings.
Finding a job can be a challenge, but there are so many options from telecommuting to an office job to seasonal waitressing gigs. There is always a way to make it work! See some more ideas here: www.travelswithted.com/full-time-rv-living-jobs/
You have now a 23 foot How big was the fifth wheel? Looks to me the fifth wheel before it goes up to the fifth wheel is a about the same So why did you folks change exactly?
What happens when you leave it open is the solids build up and you get the infamous poop pyramid 💩 starting with 2gal of water keep it closed water is your friend this allows the solids to liquefy when it's time to dump it All slides out!!
Switching to a bidet and not using even black tank safe tp can help avoid a poopyramid. We still don't leave it open normally, but have on occasion during winter without any problems.
@@Frostbytedigital you are lucky to have a bidet in your RV and luckily you haven't had any issues with the other solids building up... Happy trails and good travels
