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I will be finding out if the east coast side looks at the RV length issue closer later in the fall. We will be spending some time in both Virginia's and both Carolina's before cutting back over toward New Orleans to sit for November. I am fully aware of being at least 7-8 feet over length in most states. If stopped and ticketed and/or made to get legal then so be it. We picked this rig set up so we could travel with a car and motorcycle behind a 43' DP. If it turns out that other's I have talked to that are traveling in rigs longer than mine are full of crap and western or eastern states do stop and ticket them, well then it is a easy fix for me. I will simply get rid of my 24' enclosed and buy an extended tow dolly to still haul our car and Harley. I can get to 65' or under that way, just can't back up or haul much extra stuff.

I have always weighed on CAT certified scales at Pilots, Flying J's, or Love's. Have never been across an unattended state scale.

We did that a few years ago for a cruise out of Seattle, going to Alaska. We found a great CG just north of the city that catered to folks taking a cruise. They had a special lot set up so you could plug your RV into a 110V outlet. We were able to keep frig and batteries going while away. If we camped in a regular site one day prior to cruise and a day after the storage days were only $10 per day. With Florida being such a winter snowbird destination I'm not sure that type of CG exists close to Miami. Are you bringing your RV a long distance just to do the cruise, or are you staying in Florida for the winter in it?

Good information to know Carl. From other things I was reading I assumed having the Oasis serviced was an annual deal. Sounds like I may be able to stretch it a little.

Very interesting post. There certainly needs to be more small and large RV parks built all over the country. We have only been Florida residents for 3 years. During that time we have only owned (and sold) one piece of property. However, based on what few things we have learned about Florida is that land and property prices vary. I realize you are concentrating on developing this piece of property because you inherited it. However, what would be the possibilities of selling it and obtaining a 10 acre track of land away from the coast, say for example within a couple miles of I-10? Example: we have stayed at the Hitching Post CG, Cottondale FL. It is probably on about 5 or 6 acres and close to I-10. The couple that purchased it and developed it always dreamed of owning a CG. It is nothing fancy and they have done most of the work themselves, gravel and grass. It has nice utilities and both pull through sites and back in. Example: Azalea Acres RV Park, Robertsdale AL. It is located a couple miles off of I-10. It is nothing fancy, just about 3 to 5 acres of grass and gravel. They have really long pull through sites and stay booked. These are just two examples that come to mind of simple CG's in the panhandle area that don't have swimming pools, tennis courts, etc., but are nice to stay at and probably easy to maintain. I'm sure the land they are sitting on was probably pretty cheap to initially purchase. Who knows, maybe your inherited property could be sold for enough to purchase 5 acres in another location plus leave you enough for some initial infrastructure.

Just curious, but is that unusual for a manufacturer to put 3 year old tires on a new coach? I haven't looked for the date codes on my tires yet but just assumed they were from 2016 or 2017. If FL sent them to Newmar with 2015 tires on the chassis I'm not going to be happy!

"When getting a starting air pressure for the beginning of the day, it is important that the tires not be sitting in the sunlight. A tire sitting in sunlight will warm quickly and the pressure will read higher than a tire in the shade even if both were at the same pressure before sunrise. Adjusting the pressure on a tire which has the sun shining on it can result in wildly different pressures between tires on one axle where one tire is in sunlight and the other in shade. This is why I never sleep late on a day when we are driving. Unless you are parked in a very shady location or inside a garage, there is only one way to get an accurate before driving air pressure reading from your tires, get up before the sun hits them. +/- what? " Tom, I think you are generally spot on with your post, especially the above part. It is easy to see how the sun effects psi even when rolling down the highway if the sun is only hitting one side of the coach. Just utilizing a TPMS over the years has educated me further about tires behavior. I don't really think manual checking with a gauge, or installing a TPMS sensor actually lets out enough air on these large MH tires to make any difference. IMHO you would have to sit there and manually check a 22.5 tires 30 or 40 times to let out 1 psi of air.

Welcome Jack! Thanks for your service. A lot can be said for doing a military stretch right out of high school. I know it fixed my bad attitude in a hurry!

MWeiner, I would think you could just add roadside assistance to your insurance policy for $7 to $10 a year and forget about it. It isn't like you have some big special RV to have to worry about towing or fixing a flat on.

Very good information posted on tires/rims. When I think of safety on the road with my RVs my first thoughts are always about the tires. Even while stationary for a few weeks I still monitor them with my TPMS on occasion, clean, and inspect them.

"After having the bus weighed, Tag 9,000, Drive 13,500, Stear 14,600, I contacted Tiffin and they said I had too much weight on the Tag Axle." Even though I have a Newmar, our coaches are about the same length. When I weighed, loaded, without toad/trailer, tag was 2,860, steer axle 13,660, drives 22,020, and my coach's total weight is slightly more. So I agree, there is an issue with your tag.

If the FMCA Verizon Unlimited Plan is somehow different than their regular plan and this is true, then it is news to me. I thought if you were on the unlimited plan then each hotspot was throttled back to 3g speeds once you hit 15gigs on that device.

I had internal ones installed on two previous RVs. They were more expensive and of course went with each RV when sold. I'm sticking with external. It winds up with my power cord and I don't hardly notice it is even there anymore.

I am guessing at the 9 to 10 year mark for a hose it could have been time for a replacement. I'm sure over-the-road tractors use their engine brake systems a lot.

Wayne, you and your canine are probably the exception to the rule. I was walking in a rural area next to our old neighborhood last year when I came across a gentlemen about my age with 3 dogs. None of them were on a leach. One, a black lab, charged me. He was yelling at it the whole time to come back but it was obvious the dog wasn't going to listen to him. I simply stopped and put my hands in the air as his dog closed on me. It turned out the lab wasn't aggressive but friendly and jumped up on me as a greeting. Problem was his nails scratched the crap out of my leg, which didn't sit well with me. I kneed the lab's chest just enough to get him down off of me and began walking past. I reminded the guy that there was a leach law even in the county. He didn't apologize but turned toward his dogs and said to them "better leave Mr. Grouchy alone". Needless to say I stopped and we had a further conversation. I showed him the scratch on my leg, which was bleeding some, and warned him that with concealed carry in Florida he was taking a chance of getting his lab shot by letting him charge at folks. The guy yelled at me "so now you are threatening to shoot my dog?" Needless to say the conversation went down from there all because he owned 3 untrained canines and he refused to follow the laws about keeping them under control. Since this was my regular route to walk every morning a call was made to the Lee County Animal Control. It took them a few weeks but finally they happened to be in the area when this guy was letting his dogs run. They were going to just warn him but he copped an attitude with them so they cited him. One citation for each dog, totally just over $900.00. My tax dollars at work!

The park we are wintering in is full of canines. The section we are in has only 3 sites that do not have dogs. All breeds and sizes are here. I get to see many of them because our site is on the back of the facility next to the pet area. Based on my experience/training as a State Police K-9 handler I have made some observations. 90% of the dogs present in this park are not being walked by their owners, they are walking their owners. I would be willing to bet that none would respond to simple commands, like "sit", "stay", or whatever. The owner's think their pets are just great, but other folks don't care for them barking, jumping up on them, or generally being misbehaved. It isn't the dog's fault, most dogs can be trained to do about anything. They thrive on the attention and training by their owners. It is most owner's are lazy and never train their pet, instead treating it like some small furry disabled baby they adopted. I love most dogs and really feel bad for them when they are not treated properly by their owners.

Seat belts are a good thing in larger DP rigs. It will keep you in your seat during an emergency. I suppose air bags couldn't hurt if they were added. But if you have ever seen the aftermath of how large Class A RVs come apart when they roll over in an accident you will forget about many other safety features. Most of them if they are traveling at 60mph or above totally come apart when rolling over. All the extra expensive safety equipment isn't going to do you any good when that 18 year old is texting at 60mph and runs into the side of your coach, or that DUI driver crosses the median at 80mph without his/her lights on and hits you head on. You can't fix stupid as the saying goes, and in today's world there are more and more stupid driver's out there. The government can mandate more and more expensive equipment but until they get serious about some of the laws and enforcement it won't change. How about first time DUI you go to jail for 5 years automatically and can't get your license back for 20 years? First time caught texting while driving is an automatic $5,000 fine and your license gets suspended for a year? Now we're talking!

We will see how long it lasts. My manufacturer instructions say you are suppose to clean and then put a coating of 303 on it every month. I suspect if an owner did that and never missed a month it may last a long time.

There are certainly parts of the Caloosahatchee river that can be scenic. Please do not walk your pet next to those waters or dangle your feet in them unless you want some really good close up shots of large gators coming up out of the water! Seriously, I'm glad you folks are enjoying SW Florida. It is crowded this time of year but has a lot to offer.

No way I'm getting rid of my backup alarm!!!!! The U.S. Army put me in my first diesel tractor trailer when I was 17 years old and taught me to drive it and maintain it. Now almost 50 years later I'm getting the opportunity to have another diesel that makes noise. I get goose bumps when my back up alarm is going off or air is being released from the brakes!!!!! If my DW would let me I would put a set of twin exhaust stacks on the rear of the coach.

Skimmers are huge recently in SW Florida. I think the news said the other night that just in Cape Coral alone since the first of the year they have found over a dozen. Yesterday we needed gas in both the car and bike. Had a $100 rewards Shell card so I went to the closest Shell station and filled up the Mini Cooper. Later that afternoon I was in a different part of town and stopped at another Shell station on motorcycle. $100 rewards card declined. Went inside and they said the system was only taking regular credit cards. I only pumped $2.00 so on the way back through town I could try another Shell to use the rewards card. Ended up back at the same Shell station where I had filled up my car that morning. Shell rewards card refused at pump outside. Cancelled transaction and put my Shell card in, it was also refused. I went inside and they said all credit cards were being refused except debit. Now how goofy is all of this? Was Shell having computer issues throughout the area? Was my regular Shell credit card refused the second time I used it because of a previous $2.00 fuel charge? Not sure what happened but by the end of the day I was about as happy with Shell as I was with Loves.

Yes Brett, they had the correct amount and gallons that was reflected on the pump.

A short RV such as yours should be extremely easy to back almost anywhere. You just need to do some practice to gain confidence. Get out and make sure nothing is in the way on the site you are backing into. It is always easier to back in from driver's side, but you will still have to get used to using both side mirrors. If you get half way in and are not sure how close something is on your blind side, then secure in place, get out and look. There is no huge hurry when trying to safely back into a camp site. You need to manage your backing skills as quickly as possible IMHO if full timing. There could be situations during the day while traveling that you will need to backup without 2 or 3 folks out there helping you.

If you originally pay $4,000 to $5,000 and then every year kick in another $500 to $600, then I suppose figuring an average of $9.00 plus per night of camping would make some folks happy. When we were full time before we averaged about $9,000 a year to $10,000 a year in camping fees. That is still less than $30.00 a night average. We never boon docked or dry camped, but we stayed in decent CG's and always had 50amp and good hook-ups. This time around with a different RV we plan on mixing in some boon docking and dry camping and expect our annual to stay between $8,000 and $9,000, which will average less than $25.00 per day. The thing is we can go where we want to and plan our travels based on where we want to go, not based on where TT has camp sites we have to use.

It very well may work for some folks. For us as full timers we like to plan our year targeting different parts of the country. As the year goes on that may or may not change, but we always have the option of doing and going where we want when we want. I'm just not going to pay a high membership to some company to stay in a bunch of different parks, some of which I have now experienced first hand are nasty. If we were part time and only staying in one section of the country then possibly TT would be okay.