About to GO Full Time

We have a FR/PT Spartan. And while it has had it's problems it's not a bad rig at all. Certainly the insulation is good. I love the island. But it doesn't have a dedicated dining area, and I miss that. Looked at the front living room models and it was a hard choice, but we went with the Spartan. Kind of wish we had gone with the front living room model instead since we don't have toys per se. Oh well - live and learn!

I think having 3 AC is getting more common and with load management I can see how it might work. Inrush current is the killer so if that's managed by compressor cycling it should work. Remember 50 amp service is actually two 50 amp legs for 100 amps total, 3x what you get with 30 amps.

dedmiston wrote:
Ours have three, but you can only run two at a time. There's a switch in the bedroom that toggles between the bedroom and garage AC. Sometimes it's a tough choice.

The furnace doesn't make it to the garage either, so the garage gets the shaft for both seasons (we only have two seasons in SoCal).

Nice part about my rig is I can run all 3 on 50amp service. I just have to watch total amps being used on the leg with 2 A/Cs.

dedmiston wrote:

RoyBell wrote:
6- Option it up. Make sure you have 3 AC units. If you travel somewhere warm, you will have enough cooling. If one goes down, you still have 2. Adding a 3rd to ours was only about $800 from the factory. Also make sure you have slide toppers. Full timing you will stay at CGs longer and all sorts of stuff will fall on your slide. The toppers will keep the slides clean of debris. Get the 3 season door so your deck is usable as a deck.

Ours have three, but you can only run two at a time. There's a switch in the bedroom that toggles between the bedroom and garage AC. Sometimes it's a tough choice.

The furnace doesn't make it to the garage either, so the garage gets the shaft for both seasons (we only have two seasons in SoCal).

I can't comment since we haven't ran our AC yet, but supposedly it's designed to run all 3 or cycle between all 3 automatically. I am not sure how the system works because we haven't needed the AC yet. They are all linked together though, so you will get some output from the one that isn't running.

When I ordered mine, there were 2 AC options. Just adding the third one, and this was the $300 more option: 3rd A/C Garage 15K BTU w/Load Management System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K02WmNbz59k

There is heat in my garage and it's insulated...but there is only a single vent on the inside wall. IMO not enough for a space that size. We ran an oil filled electric heater in ours to supplement the vent and it kept the garage toasty down to 18 degrees outside.

RoyBell wrote:
6- Option it up. Make sure you have 3 AC units. If you travel somewhere warm, you will have enough cooling. If one goes down, you still have 2. Adding a 3rd to ours was only about $800 from the factory. Also make sure you have slide toppers. Full timing you will stay at CGs longer and all sorts of stuff will fall on your slide. The toppers will keep the slides clean of debris. Get the 3 season door so your deck is usable as a deck.

Ours have three, but you can only run two at a time. There's a switch in the bedroom that toggles between the bedroom and garage AC. Sometimes it's a tough choice.

The furnace doesn't make it to the garage either, so the garage gets the shaft for both seasons (we only have two seasons in SoCal).

If full timing, I would want these things:

1- 2 separate baths, or at least a half bath. My wife is a mess in the bathroom. We have separate bathrooms at home and it works very well for us :). Our camper has the bath and a half which is nice because I can do my business in the rear half bath.

2- Make sure your tanks are large enough that you don't need to worry about finding a hookup or cleanout. Our blacks @ 40 gallon each lasted us a full 2 weeks (80 gal total between the 2). Our grey is 40 I think? It lasts us 4 normal showers (ie: water running not turning it off) and some dishes before it's full. I would had preferred a 60-80 gallon but we only have a 36' camper. 100+ fresh water is ideal so you aren't freaking out if you can't find water. Most triple axle trailer double the capacity of all those tanks.

3- Kitchen or open floor plan kitchen is a must for full time I think. We have a peninsula style kitchen. It's functional and fine for our weekend style camping, but I could not live with that full time.

4- Figure out the length you will need. Shorter is better for campsites. Longer is better for full time. Our garage is 11' and my Ultra fits fine. I hold it far enough back that the antenna has to come off the rear pack or it will rub on the 3 season doors. That allows plenty of room for walking in front of the bike and getting to the half bath.

5- Check the stove. Some campers (like ours) has no counter space on either side of the stove. That is OK for our type of camping since most of the cooking is done outside and it was a compromise to keep the length short as possible with a full garage. However, for full time, that would drive me nuts.

6- Option it up. Make sure you have 3 AC units. If you travel somewhere warm, you will have enough cooling. If one goes down, you still have 2. Adding a 3rd to ours was only about $800 from the factory. Also make sure you have slide toppers. Full timing you will stay at CGs longer and all sorts of stuff will fall on your slide. The toppers will keep the slides clean of debris. Get the 3 season door so your deck is usable as a deck.

7- Forget the "residential fridge". I know they are likely better quality than an RV fridge, but I like having the propane option when traveling vs running the generator to keep it going. We have a 12 CF fridge and I think the largest on the market is 18CF which is pretty dang big.

8- Make sure you get a generator. Nothing worse than having no power at the campground and it allows our more places to camp (ie boondocking)

As far as brands go, we settled on a Grand Design. We are happy with it. The specs were better than other models we looked at. Better tires (G rated vs F rated), upgraded suspension with wet bolts, higher CCC, more cabinets, ducted heat/ac (no floor vents), more ambient lighting (under counter, above cabinet, etc).

Y-Guy wrote:

nayther wrote:
If Winnebago did buy GD then the QC will be in the toilet as FR or THOR bought Winnebago I believe. Regardless we when we were shopping for our current 5er we looked at Winnebago and the quality was worse than most.

Winnebago is not part of either Forest River or Thor they are traded on the NYSE as WGO. They bought the assets of SunnyBrook RV Inc, then in 2016 they bought Grand Design, in 2019 the assets of Chris-Craft, and just recently Newmar.

Thanks guys, I stand corrected. However I do stand by my statement regarding QC, the 3 or 4 that we looked at, a couple had not been prepped, were terrible.

nayther wrote:
If Winnebago did buy GD then the QC will be in the toilet as FR or THOR bought Winnebago I believe. Regardless we when we were shopping for our current 5er we looked at Winnebago and the quality was worse than most.

Winnebago is not part of either Forest River or Thor they are traded on the NYSE as WGO. They bought the assets of SunnyBrook RV Inc, then in 2016 they bought Grand Design, in 2019 the assets of Chris-Craft, and just recently Newmar.

nayther wrote:

JKJavelin wrote:
We almost bought a Grand Design 3 years ago and while we were looking I joined their owners forum and I'm still a member and frequent that forum occasionally.
Owners were once in heaven there but it seems that now the honeymoon may be over with people complaining like all the other brands. If I was looking right now I would take a good look at KZ. They've been around long enough to be past the honeymoon stage.
JK

If Winnebago did buy GD then the QC will be in the toilet as FR or THOR bought Winnebago I believe. Regardless we when we were shopping for our current 5er we looked at Winnebago and the quality was worse than most.

Winnie is still a stand alone, though publicly traded company and i would put them way above Thor or FR. They just bought Newmar.

I'd have no problem full timing in our 2019 Momentum 381M....if only our work and finances would allow. It is built well enough, imho, to handle full time living. If money wasn't an issue I'd have a New Horizons.