RVers think of the Mercedes Sprinter van as a great motorhome. Indeed, the resurgence of the RV industry and the boom in Class B sales can largely be traced to the popularity of Sprinter-based RVs, like those sold by Roadtrek and other RV makers.
But for the past several months in in the service bays of American RV in Grand Rapids, MI, a stripped down Sprinter van has been converted into something much more: A mobile medical suite to be sent to Haiti as part of a church mission project.
jonan
This could be the first Type B motorhome ever Henry Fords 1937 House Car.
They supposedly only build a handful of these each year. This one is on a 1937 Ford Pickup frame and was found in a private garage in Minnesota in the summer of 2001 with only 19,000 miles on it.
A collector named Graham Thickins restored it to original and drivable condition.
Check out this story by Thickins to see lots of photos and get the details but it had an all wood lined interior with a metal skin wrapped aro
So, what’s your worse nightmare about an RV trip? Having a mechanical breakdown in the middle of, say, Montana, at the start of a weekend?
Trust me, it’s not so bad.
I can say this because it happened to us last weekend, just as we were leaving Glacier National Park and the Many Glacier area, about as remote a place as you can find, where even the cell phones don’t reach.
This was the culprit … the sensor (black) at the right of the fuel rail.
There is one inescapable thing about RV trave
http://youtu.be/ikwYoAmuQQk
I love kayaking. But with a Class B campervan-style RV, there just isn’t enough storage room to take one along. At least that’s what I thought until I discovered the Sea Eagle inflatable Kayak.
Facebook friends on our Roadtreking page alerted me to it and I’m planning to order one before spring. The one I’m looking at is the SeaEagle 330. It weighs just 26 lbs. and packs down small enough to fit in the “basement” of my Roadtrek Sprinter van, the storage space under
If you’re like me and the pounds have been hard to get off lately, maybe you have sitting disease.
Yes, there really is such an disease. And it’s reached epidemic proportions, linked to all sorts of other ailments, the first and foremost of which is obesity.
Blame it on our sedentary lifestyle. Our desk-bound working days. Our computer and Internet use. TV watching But the fact is, the average American these days sits — at a desk, in the car or RV, on a couch – eight to 10 hours every day. Sit
The month of October has surprisingly become huge for RV campgrounds, resorts and parks around the U.S. thanks to Halloween.
Maybe because for many in the northern states, its a chance to do one more trip before the RV has to be winterized and put in storage.
Instead of just one night – Oct. 31 – many parks dedicate the entire two or three weekends before Halloween to the big event.
We visited a campground near us this past weekend – Addison Oaks Park in Addison Twp., about 45 miles north of
Is there anything more exciting about leaving on an RV Trip? Anticipation fuels each mile. Excitement about what lies ahead runs high. The sights are new, the day’s drive full of expectation.
Conversely, is there anything more mind-numbing than the drive back home? Been there, done that syndrome kicks in. The vacation is over. There are so many miles to go on a road we’ve traveled before.
On return from many a previous trip, Jennifer and I would resolve ourself just to drive. To get home as fa
Michigan’s Sunrise Side is one of the best-kept secrets in the Great Lakes.
The state’s west coast Lake Michigan PR machine has done a better job of promoting the beaches and trendy little communities there while the Lake Huron coast along the state’s east coast has stayed purposefully low-keyed.
And that has been just fine with the locals and the sharp-eyed tourists who love the area. That means there are no traffic jams. Prices for food, lodging and the like are usually more affordable than
One of the biggest surprises we had last year in our travels was with KOA – Kampgrounds of America. On our trip west and then on other meanderings over the season, we had the opportunity of staying at about a dozen KOA campgrounds across the U.S.
They were all good experiences, to be sure, but we couldn’t help but notice some big differences between the properties.
And so today, when we see that KOA has re-branded itself by deciding to classify each of their more than 400 properties according
RV Repair and Maintenance Manual 4th Edition
The book that has been an RV industry standard for over 15 years. Find out what you need to know about the maintenance of appliances, accessories and procedures in easy-to-understand-and-apply layman’s terms. Whether you’re a seasoned or shade-tree mechanic or you rely on a professional RV service center, knowing how your rig works and how to keep it in tip-top shape gives you the upper hand and many miles of trouble free RV travel. Get yours for $22
Of all the eight states that touch the Great Lakes , Michigan – with 2,147 miles – has the most coastline. So as we rounded the bottom of Lake Michigan from the Indiana border and made our way into Southwest Michigan on the last leg of out 10-segment adventure, there was a sense of déjà vu about it all.
Around us were beautiful blue waters, sand dunes, lush green agricultural fields and even a wine trail, much like we have seen to different degrees on all of the lake shorelines we’ve visited ov
In central Kentucky, the Mammoth Cave National Park is not only a geological wonder that is unequaled in scope, it is also a great getaway for a long RV weekend, with a terrific campground, beautiful scenery and bike paths through a heavily forested area of gently rolling hills and the lush Green River valley.
Located 15 minutes off I-65 at Cave City Exit (Exit 53) or Park City (Exit 48), the park encompasses 53,000 acres. But it is the 400 miles of caves beneath the surface that make it so dra
We’re in northeastern Wisconsin and Minnesota in the midst of what the news media says is the coldest stretch of prolonged frigid temperatures to hit the continental U.S. in a century and yet, everywhere I go around here, the locals seem to shrug it all off and continue with their winter activities of snow shoeing, cross country skiing, hockey playing, hiking, ice fishing and dog sled racing.
They seem to actually embrace the cold in an area where the snow is three feet deep and the snow drifts
And the Great Wendland Family Roadtreking RV Vacation is off and westbound, headed to Colorado and the American southwest in a caravan of two Roadtreks, a travel trailer and an SUV.
Meet the Family
Since you’ll be seeing and hearing about the six adults, two kids and three big dogs we have traveling in two Roadtrek Class B motorhomes, one Gulf Stream Travel Trailer and an SUV, I thought it might be good to introduce them to you. I should also point out that my third child, Scott, with his wife
The Nav-6: SUV/Minivan/RV and more
Of all the different Roadtrek models out there, one of the most distinctive is the new NAV-6, an SUV that can be used as an RV.
It’s really category-defying. A luxury SUV on the Nissan 2500 frame, it is expertly tricked out by Roadtrek with a built in kitchenette, complete with microwave, refrigerator, TV and sink with hot and cold running water. The NAV-6 has a roof that rises to make it big enough to walk around in without bumping your head. It’s also able
I didn’t know what to expect when I pulled into Okeechobee, Fla., but I can defiately say that I didn’t expect it to remind me of West Texas, right down to the city calling itself ”Cow Town.” But this is a western style town in the middle of the sunshine state, it’s dry and windy and surrounded by wide open spaces and lots and lots of cows. Rodeos are a big deal here and the name of the best local restaurant tells you what the local culture revolves around. It’s simply called “The Cowboy.”
In
One of the reasons so many RVers love Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is because of all the wildlife. And in recent years, the chance, albeit slim, of seeing a wolf has been at least a possibility that has made the place pretty exciting. For the introduction of the grey wolf into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is one of the greatest wildlife management success stories in generations. Where there were none just a couple of decades ago, there are now around 700.
On calm, clear nights, hearing the howls of
Summer travel and vacation is upon us and as many of us hit the road, we’re sharing our travel with friends and families. Many of you know I also am a techology correspondent for the 215 NBC-TV Newschannel affiliate stations across the country.
I do a weekly “PC MIke” Tech feature for the network and, these days, I am usually doing it from the back of my Roadtrek Etrek as we travel the country.
In this week’s report, I featured three apps and Internet services that can map and track your trave
What a winter this has been. The arctic vortex or whatever we call the cold air that has been making repeated appearances throughout the Upper Midwest has kept many an RVer housebound before the fireplace.
Not us. We’re about to head up to Northern Minnesota along the Lake Superior northern shore where the temperature is expected to be -26F/-32C.
I wrote about it earlier when the bitter cold forecast was causing our plans to waver. Many of you offered advice. Most said don’t go. Some said head
If any of you have been to the Roadtrek factory in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada for a tour, you would have an idea of what it takes to build a Roadtrek, how busy the manufacturing floor is and how passionate everyone there is about the product.
For those who have not been able to make the trip (and we highly recommend that you do), we are happy to present a video tour for you on what it takes to build the #1 selling Class B Motorhome in North America.
Jennifer and I spent two weeks in Kitch
MARQUETTE, MI – Winter in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is not for warm weather sissies. In the town of Marquette, hard on the shore of Lake Superior, nearly 149 inches of snow falls each winter. That works out to nearly 12 and-a-half feet of snow.
Up here, from late October to mid April, snowmobiles are seemingly as common as trucks. But all that snow also enables another form of transportation: Dog sleds.
Each February, Marquette hosts one of the nation's premier dog sled races, the UP200, a
I use a lot of cameras while we travel North America in our Roadtrek RV. One of my favorites is the GoPro Hero, a very tiny high def camera that I can mount to the side of my vehicle, wear on a bike hemet or attach to just about anything.
The folks who make the camera just released some free editing software called GoPro Studio. I couldn’t resist downloading it last night and throwing in a few of our driving shots from this summer. The music comes with the template you download, so no complaint
Jennifer and I love watching things grow, planting them, tending to them and then – with our vegetable garden – picking them when they are fresh and ripe and enjoying them.
We’ve planted a garden for many ears but the last two years, because of our travel schedule, we’ve returned home from RV trips to find it mostly shriveled up from lack of water or, unpicked, gone to seed.
Nevertheless, there we were this week, getting the vegetable beds ready again, hoeing, weeding, improving the soil and p
Colorado has so many great spots to visit but one you just do not want to miss is the Garden of the Gods Park near Colorado Springs. We’ve been there twice, once in the winter and once in the summer. Both trips were excellent and made us determined to come back again and again.
The red-colored sandstone formations tower as high as 300 feet and walking trails lead right up to them.
The Garden of the Gods Park is a registered National Natural Landmark that has been exciting tourists since the mi
The Making of a Roadtrek: The Movie
If any of you have been to the Roadtrek factory in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada for a tour, you would have an idea of what it takes to build a Roadtrek,...
Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome
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