My wife and I visited an RV dealer yesterday and looked at some fifth wheels, then decided to look at some motorhomes for comparison. We were impressed with one that had a lot of ammenities we like (Winnebago Voyage). We sat in the coach for half an hour and really liked it. We thought of a lot of questions concerning living in a motorhome. Maybe some of you could answer a few.
We noticed the fans on the windshield. Does it get that hot while driving? Can you run the house a/c while driving?
Also wondering if you pull into a campground and it is raining, do you put the levelers down and go outside to connect power? or do you just start the generator if you need power?
We sat there trying to image how we would handle different situations if we lived in the motorhome. When Christmas rolls around, where would we put a Christmas tree? How would we decorate the MH? We would love to hear some of your experiences in these areas...
-- Edited by Doncat at 14:17, 2006-09-17
bjoyce said
12:54 PM Sep 17, 2006
The fans in the windshield are mostly for cold weather where the inside fogs up since a windshield cannot be double-paned.
You can run the generator and a/c while driving. You should also have dash a/c. Most motorhomes do not have the roof (or basement) a/c hooked to the inverter/charger so you need shore power or the generator to run them.
I will throw in my standard recommendation to get heat pumps if possible instead of standard a/c units, that way you have both a/c and high efficiency electric heat. We use our heat pumps for heat a lot while in campgrounds instead of the furnace.
Most campgrounds with hookups have a "no generators" rule so we go out and hookup. If you have an inverter/charger you can live off your batteries for many hours or days without being hooked up. We have waited for the rain or thunder to get calmer before hooking up. In some places and some times of the years it can rain continously for days on end, some friends went over 2,000 miles once to find dry weather.
We have a small table that goes on the steering wheel I made after the expensive plastic one kept collasping when the cat jumped on it. We put a small, about 2' tall, artificial Christmas tree on it.
Old Snipe said
06:32 PM Sep 17, 2006
I have a Winnebago Adventurer 35U, the big sister to the Voyage. I have the windshield fans for defogging the windshield, but have not yet needed them. The dash air (Workhorse chassis) works very well, we rarely ever need to run the house air off the generator, but we can if the situation should arise. My MH has the basement A/C, some of the shorter Voyages have the roof A/C, the longer wheelbases (38') has the basement air.
Arrving at a campground in the pouring rain, I'd wait a little while until the rain slackened a little, then I'd hook up the electric. If the campground has generator hours and you are in that time window and just have to have that bag of popcorn, then go for it. If no generators are allowed, you can run most of your equipment, less the microwave, coach air or (heaven forbid) the hair dryer for quite a while on battery power. If you have the choice, buy the invertor option for the Voyage, you can watch TV and a DVD off battery power while you wait for the rain to stop. I just don't like the idea of plugging in to electric while standing on wet ground. If you must, rubber boots, no bare feet!
Good advice on the heat pump option, too. Heat pump requires electrical hook up or running the generator. I have it and it works well in chilly weather down to about 40 degrees (F), anything lower than that, the furnace kicks on. The furnance will run off battery power without hookups if needed, batteries will keep it going all night.
As to Christmas decorations, it is up to your imagination. I've seen all kinds of lighting decorations, both inside and outside the MH. The Voyage has a large enough dash that you could easily put a small tree on it easily. We haven't done any Christmas time camping (yet) but the fulltiming day for us is coming.
Best Regards!
Doncat said
10:11 AM Sep 20, 2006
Hey thanks for a couple of great posts. I never knew what those fans were for and had assumed they were there because the dash air couldn't keep the coach cool enough. Now I know different. You have also given me a couple of items to add to may checklist, ie. heat pump and look for basement air.
I was also pleased to learn that you can run the generator while traveling, hence the house air if needed. Is the generator already setup to run the air or is that something you have to do by adding an invertor or controller or something?
Can you tell I am a beginner....
-- Edited by Doncat at 12:12, 2006-09-20
bjoyce said
10:51 AM Sep 20, 2006
The generator replaces the shore power and in some motorhomes you have to plug the shore power cord into a generator outlet to use it, while others have an automatic transfer switch. Most motorhomes come with a generator but not all come with one that will run the full a/c load, you need a 6.5KW one to do that and some come with only 5.0KW ones by default. Plus if you know you are going to run the motorhome a/c off generator get one that uses the same fuel tank as the motorhome, some come with propane generators instead of gas or diesel.
Basement a/c takes away from basement storage and the main advantage is how the motorhome looks. I was at a conference a while back where some techs were asked if basement was better than roof a/c and the answer was BTUs are all that matter. Any other answer is marketing mumbo jumbo. When tested 27,000 BTUs cools as well from the roof or basement. Most basement units are 27,000 BTUs and can be run at half load on 30AMP so they act like 13,500 BTU units, while most roof a/c units are 13,500 BTUs and most motorhomes above 30' come with two of them so you have 27,000 BTUs. We have two 15,000 BTU roof a/c's with heat pump in this motorhome and had two 13,500 BTU roof a/c units in our old motorhome.
Check wall insulation and how well your slides seal for how well you can cool if you are worried about hot weather. In 95 degrees of direct sun our 2002 35' Dolphin was not able to keep up with cooling using two 13,500 BTU roof a/cs but our 2004 40' Dutch Star was cycling its a/c units on and off while we transferred our belongings between the two motorhomes. The Dutch Star is much better insulated.
Fly Buoy V said
02:34 PM Nov 16, 2006
We have a lot of the same questions...and concerns. We will be monitoring this forum to see what kind of answers you get. Good luck with your looking at MHs and your research. We are in the same predicament...not a bad "predicament" to be in, eh????
victorianlady51 said
06:53 PM Jan 12, 2014
We're still dreaming - but our countdown in on! April 1st - we put the house up for sale. So- guess what we're doing right now???? Weed weed weeding away. We've been looking at 5th wheels and as I look around I get the empty, generic, "hotel room" impression. All that to get to my question:
What do you do to personalize your rv but yet not let it look like a crammed in box? I've thought about putting pictures on the computer monitor and a couple on the refrig. But as I look in the bedroom - I'm thinking you can't hang a picture on the sides of the bed as one side is usually the closet and the other would affect the slide as it slid in.
I'm looking forward to your ideas
Lucky Mike said
07:30 PM Jan 12, 2014
pictures I use digital frames.....they are ever changing so it never gets boring.......you will find ,slowly but surely all your personal touches just appear!!!!!
RVRon said
12:11 PM Jan 13, 2014
Doncat wrote:We sat there trying to image how we would handle different situations if we lived in the motorhome. When Christmas rolls around, where would we put a Christmas tree? How would we decorate the MH? We would love to hear some of your experiences in these areas...
There's not much open floor space in a motorhome so we have a table top tree that sits on the dash. It fits nicely there and looks very festive from outside at night when we have the windshield curtains open. There is ample room on the dash also for Santa to put our presents too... assuming we've been good! When the Christmas season is over we store the tree folded up in the big storage compartment under the bed.
As for decorating, if you look around there are lots of small wall spaces for hanging pictures and decorations. If the motorhome comes with some pictures on the walls you can take them apart and insert your own artwork or use a collage matte for an assortment of family pictures, places you've been, etc. Hang the pictures with the 3M Command Adhesive products. Stick the sides and bottom of the larger pictures down too, so they don't sway or fall off when you're in motion.
-- Edited by RVRon on Monday 13th of January 2014 12:12:12 PM
Terry and Jo said
07:38 PM Jan 13, 2014
Not only has a very old thread been revived, but the revival doesn't seem to be related to the topic of the original posting.
If one has a subject that one wants answers or ideas for, look to do it in a new thread instead of reviving an old one.
For that reason, I'm closing this thread. If you still want answers, start a new thread.
My wife and I visited an RV dealer yesterday and looked at some fifth wheels, then decided to look at some motorhomes for comparison. We were impressed with one that had a lot of ammenities we like (Winnebago Voyage). We sat in the coach for half an hour and really liked it. We thought of a lot of questions concerning living in a motorhome. Maybe some of you could answer a few.
We noticed the fans on the windshield. Does it get that hot while driving? Can you run the house a/c while driving?
Also wondering if you pull into a campground and it is raining, do you put the levelers down and go outside to connect power? or do you just start the generator if you need power?
We sat there trying to image how we would handle different situations if we lived in the motorhome. When Christmas rolls around, where would we put a Christmas tree? How would we decorate the MH? We would love to hear some of your experiences in these areas...
-- Edited by Doncat at 14:17, 2006-09-17
The fans in the windshield are mostly for cold weather where the inside fogs up since a windshield cannot be double-paned.
You can run the generator and a/c while driving. You should also have dash a/c. Most motorhomes do not have the roof (or basement) a/c hooked to the inverter/charger so you need shore power or the generator to run them.
I will throw in my standard recommendation to get heat pumps if possible instead of standard a/c units, that way you have both a/c and high efficiency electric heat. We use our heat pumps for heat a lot while in campgrounds instead of the furnace.
Most campgrounds with hookups have a "no generators" rule so we go out and hookup. If you have an inverter/charger you can live off your batteries for many hours or days without being hooked up. We have waited for the rain or thunder to get calmer before hooking up. In some places and some times of the years it can rain continously for days on end, some friends went over 2,000 miles once to find dry weather.
We have a small table that goes on the steering wheel I made after the expensive plastic one kept collasping when the cat jumped on it. We put a small, about 2' tall, artificial Christmas tree on it.
I have a Winnebago Adventurer 35U, the big sister to the Voyage. I have the windshield fans for defogging the windshield, but have not yet needed them. The dash air (Workhorse chassis) works very well, we rarely ever need to run the house air off the generator, but we can if the situation should arise. My MH has the basement A/C, some of the shorter Voyages have the roof A/C, the longer wheelbases (38') has the basement air.
Arrving at a campground in the pouring rain, I'd wait a little while until the rain slackened a little, then I'd hook up the electric. If the campground has generator hours and you are in that time window and just have to have that bag of popcorn, then go for it. If no generators are allowed, you can run most of your equipment, less the microwave, coach air or (heaven forbid) the hair dryer for quite a while on battery power. If you have the choice, buy the invertor option for the Voyage, you can watch TV and a DVD off battery power while you wait for the rain to stop. I just don't like the idea of plugging in to electric while standing on wet ground. If you must, rubber boots, no bare feet!
Good advice on the heat pump option, too. Heat pump requires electrical hook up or running the generator. I have it and it works well in chilly weather down to about 40 degrees (F), anything lower than that, the furnace kicks on. The furnance will run off battery power without hookups if needed, batteries will keep it going all night.
As to Christmas decorations, it is up to your imagination. I've seen all kinds of lighting decorations, both inside and outside the MH. The Voyage has a large enough dash that you could easily put a small tree on it easily. We haven't done any Christmas time camping (yet) but the fulltiming day for us is coming.
Best Regards!
Hey thanks for a couple of great posts. I never knew what those fans were for and had assumed they were there because the dash air couldn't keep the coach cool enough. Now I know different. You have also given me a couple of items to add to may checklist, ie. heat pump and look for basement air.
I was also pleased to learn that you can run the generator while traveling, hence the house air if needed. Is the generator already setup to run the air or is that something you have to do by adding an invertor or controller or something?
Can you tell I am a beginner....
-- Edited by Doncat at 12:12, 2006-09-20
The generator replaces the shore power and in some motorhomes you have to plug the shore power cord into a generator outlet to use it, while others have an automatic transfer switch. Most motorhomes come with a generator but not all come with one that will run the full a/c load, you need a 6.5KW one to do that and some come with only 5.0KW ones by default. Plus if you know you are going to run the motorhome a/c off generator get one that uses the same fuel tank as the motorhome, some come with propane generators instead of gas or diesel.
Basement a/c takes away from basement storage and the main advantage is how the motorhome looks. I was at a conference a while back where some techs were asked if basement was better than roof a/c and the answer was BTUs are all that matter. Any other answer is marketing mumbo jumbo. When tested 27,000 BTUs cools as well from the roof or basement. Most basement units are 27,000 BTUs and can be run at half load on 30AMP so they act like 13,500 BTU units, while most roof a/c units are 13,500 BTUs and most motorhomes above 30' come with two of them so you have 27,000 BTUs. We have two 15,000 BTU roof a/c's with heat pump in this motorhome and had two 13,500 BTU roof a/c units in our old motorhome.
Check wall insulation and how well your slides seal for how well you can cool if you are worried about hot weather. In 95 degrees of direct sun our 2002 35' Dolphin was not able to keep up with cooling using two 13,500 BTU roof a/cs but our 2004 40' Dutch Star was cycling its a/c units on and off while we transferred our belongings between the two motorhomes. The Dutch Star is much better insulated.
We're still dreaming - but our countdown in on! April 1st - we put the house up for sale. So- guess what we're doing right now???? Weed weed weeding away. We've been looking at 5th wheels and as I look around I get the empty, generic, "hotel room" impression. All that to get to my question:
What do you do to personalize your rv but yet not let it look like a crammed in box? I've thought about putting pictures on the computer monitor and a couple on the refrig. But as I look in the bedroom - I'm thinking you can't hang a picture on the sides of the bed as one side is usually the closet and the other would affect the slide as it slid in.
I'm looking forward to your ideas
There's not much open floor space in a motorhome so we have a table top tree that sits on the dash. It fits nicely there and looks very festive from outside at night when we have the windshield curtains open. There is ample room on the dash also for Santa to put our presents too... assuming we've been good! When the Christmas season is over we store the tree folded up in the big storage compartment under the bed.
As for decorating, if you look around there are lots of small wall spaces for hanging pictures and decorations. If the motorhome comes with some pictures on the walls you can take them apart and insert your own artwork or use a collage matte for an assortment of family pictures, places you've been, etc. Hang the pictures with the 3M Command Adhesive products. Stick the sides and bottom of the larger pictures down too, so they don't sway or fall off when you're in motion.
-- Edited by RVRon on Monday 13th of January 2014 12:12:12 PM
Not only has a very old thread been revived, but the revival doesn't seem to be related to the topic of the original posting.
If one has a subject that one wants answers or ideas for, look to do it in a new thread instead of reviving an old one.
For that reason, I'm closing this thread. If you still want answers, start a new thread.
Terry