New Fridge

Well the 6.6 cubic foot refridgerator in our camper went out yesterday, they have a hard time keeping up in the heat here in Florida anyway. This is usually a problem for us full-timers because the exact replacement models are about 1500 dollars, and take up to 5 days to order. There is a way to get around this if you are not worried about being able to run the fridge on propane. And that is to replace it with a normal refridgerator. You can get apartment sized refridgerators that are between 4 and 10 cubic feet. They are very similar in size and will work great in an RV. We put in a 10 cubic foot Magic Chef for 450 dollars. The only modifications we had to do was to remove the trim piece on the cabinet over the old fridge, and slide in the new one. Then we just had to plug the propane line and check it for leaks. Since the new one does not work on evaporation, it is able to cool more efficiently than the duel fuel models. I will post pictures later, it was late last night when we found out, and we got home from Home
Depot with the new one about 10:30, wasn't finished with the install till midnight.
Till next time,
Have fun and Happy RVing

Interesting lessons learned

We've been in the RV now for 1 month, during which time we've learned some very valuable lessons. One, if your turn on both computers and try to make coffee you trip the breaker. Two, the water heater will also trip the breaker if both computers or the coffee pot is on. There have been several lessons like this that we have learned to overcome. We've learned to adapt, we check to see what is on before washing dishes, or using the coffee pot. Just some little tidbits to those who may be considering this lifestyle. You will all have little things that you don't normally think about, but will learn to pay attention to. You have to be creative on your storage space too. I am not trying to discourage anyone, just give you fair notice. No matter how well you plan, you will always have issues arise. It's not a bad way to live, in fact here in Florida, it is very much a normal way of living. We were very suprized to learn just how many people live in RVs fulltime. It's considered normal here, and about one third of the population live in RVs. Not to mention those who live in conventional mobile homes.
For the most part it has been pretty uneventful since moving in. I have several things i'm going to upgrade such as the AC, and Power Supply, as soon as money allow. I will be posting those upgrades as soon as possible.
Till next time,
Have Fun and Happy RVing

Catching up

Sorry I haven't updated this blog in a while. Things have been hectic around here. Lisa started Florida A&M School of Law, so she's been pretty busy. I started Roadmasters Drivers School to get my CDL, so i've been pretty busy. Things are going good I should have my CDL license by next Friday and have a job lined up. There are so many things to tell you all I don't know where to start. I will try and organize it and will update the blog over this weekend. We've learned some interesting things, as well as had some fun since moving to Florida. I'll let you know all about it by Monday,
Till then Have Fun and Happy RVing.

Grand totals

Ok, after all the repairs are made and the unexpected items are finished, we ended up spending a grand total of $6891.46 dollars on our camper. This includes the unexpected AC unit as well as every penny spent on the camper. Not bad compared to the initial costs of a home or even renting an apartment. Not to mention the long term goal of lower monthly bills. The average price of an apartment here in Orlando is about $1000 dollars a month, plus utilities. Our lot rent including utilities is only $424.75 per month. This will equal a savings of $6902 dollars a year not counting the utilities saving of approximately 500 dollars a month.
This is the reason we chose to live in an Rv to start with.
There are some things you have to prepare for. Rv's don't have the space of a house, even with all the planning we did. There are some things that take time to get used to. Cooking for example, the kitchen is small and there isn't room to have four or five pots on at the same time. Meals have to be planned not only because of cooking space, but space for groceries. You have to really plan your shopping trips, and know where everything is going before you purchase it. You will find yourself at the store thinking I'd like to get that, then the next thought will be, where am I going to put it. Another problem is you cannot have everything on at once. Most RV's have a thirty amp service. While this is not normally a problem, you have to think about it, we've found that if you use hot water, like washing dishes, then turn on the coffee pot while the water heater is heating along with the AC the breaker will trip. While this is only a minor thing it's something you have to always think about. I am planning to upgrade the main power center to a 50 amp service in the next couple of months, so look for that.
While it is a little cramped, it's not as bad as either of us expected. Overall our first week and a half in an RV fulltime has been pretty uneventful. We spent most of our time taking care of the usual moving tasks. We got our licenses changed to Florida. added insulation to the windows and roof vents, and unpacking. We've been trying to get ready for next week. Lisa starts Law School and I start school for my CDL license.
That's it for now, I'll post more this weekend.
Till then Have fun and Happy Rving.

AC problems and cheap fix

Ok, we had the AC serviced before we moved. The service technician said there was a sensor that was bad but he could bypass it and get the ac to work. It works great, with one problem, the sensor kept the ac unit from freezing up. Now after it has ran about 5 hours it freezes and kicks off the main breaker. Because of the age of the ac unit, cannot get a replacement sensor. A new unit costs about 900 dollars. With this information I chose to put in a window unit instead. I purchased a 12,000 BTU window unit on sale at Lowes for 300 dollars, along with some expanding foam insulation, and some wood trim. Don't worry about putting in a window unit, like i've said in an earlier post, most campers with people living in them full time have many imaginative upgrades. There are about 50 in the park we are in with window units.
First remove the louvered window panes. Then remove the opening machanisms by drilling our the rivets that hold them in. Sorry I don't have pictures of this. Lisa was unpacking while I installed the unit. There are only 4 to 6 rivets that hold the mechanisms in. Then install the window ac unit like you would in a house. If you have never installed a window unit, read the instructions, it is pretty strait forward.
After the unit is installed install the trim on the inside. I fit it around the window unit like a picture frame. you may have to rip the moulding down to the proper width, depending on the type of windows in your camper.
I then sprayed in the expanding foam insulation from the outside, allow it to dry and expand overnight, otherwise it will push off the trim. After dry cut off any insulation that has expanded outside the wall, and cover the outside with trim just like the inside. Next caulk all edges of the trim on the outside and paint to match the camper.
AC unit after finished.

This is also a good idea if your rooftop unit doesn't cool the camper as well as you'd like. Or if like my you like to be cooler at night while your sleeping.

Finally finished

Ok, finally finished with the unpacking and wanted to share some pictures of our camper all unpacked. We have a grapefruit tree in the front of the lot, right past our awning, internet says they get ripe in November. We also have a beautiful flowering shrub, not sure what it is but the flowers are amazing.

Our grapefruit tree.

Our beautiful flowering shrub.

Now some pictures of our camper after all the unpacking is finished.

TV in the living area. I know it's a little big, but I am still a guy.

Our bedroom

Our bathroom

The home office. Notice the closet rod and shelf in the back for extra storage.

Taking a break when finished



Extra insulation

First off no one tells you but you should insulate the roof vents if nothing else. This simple thing will help with the cooling more than you could imagine. And it is easy to do, you can purchase foil sided, roll insulation like in the following pictures from any home improvement store for about 25 dollars a roll. One roll will cover all the vents and most of the windows in an average size camper. And don't worry about how it looks, here in Florida you can tell if someone lives in their camper simply by looking for the extra insulation. Almost all the Rv's, even the luxury class A's have it on every window, door, vent, etc. There are many ways to install it. double sided tape, velcro tape, screws, nails, etc. And when the weather cools off in the fall you can always remove it. Although it doesn't look as nice as the large glass windows, it blocks out almost all the heat. Besides our camper was a 1993 with the louvered windows, and they never seal up completely. So with the addition of insulation we've stopped almost all the AC loss and kept out 95 percent of the heat. The AC does not run constantly anymore. I do recommend that you put it between the doors and screens. it looks better there.

Here is a picture of the door.

This is the roof vents, they are all done the same.

This is of one of the windows