Thank Heavens for Our Motorhome

Living in the southeast, near the coast, hurricanes give you those reminders annually.

I agree that RV's has useful functions other than camping LOL.

We just run an extension cord from our rig to the freezer and refrigerator in the house and move to the rig for AC until the outage is over.

May not be the best bug out vehicle but will come in handy when the power is out. Take good care of the generator., it saved us especially during Hurricane Sandy, no power for 2 weeks. Hope people learned a valuable lesson from Covid, be prepared.

Whenever there is a power outage after dark, we head to the Moho and fire up the genset. Watch TV and since the summer storms are usually the culprit, the AC too. Note we always park with a full tank so with care could run a week or maybe 2 on that fuel.

Several years ago had massive fire that knocked down PG&E lines and we had no power for 4 days. That's when I had eu3k Honda that I hooked up an extension cord to the house for the Fridge, lamps and TV. Since then I installed a transfer switch and replaced the Honda with a Predator. Fortunately I haven't had power outage since but am ready.

This is exactly why I refill gas & propane tanks when we return from a trip.

I planned to use previous rvs to do the same but during a multi month rv repair we lost power for a few days. Had to run a generator ext cord thru a window.
Another time while our daughters were home and we were away in the rv , a storm knocked out the power. I figured it was time do try plan B.

I just had my electrician install an interlock switch on my house panel and an outside 240 outlet . My Honda 7000IS plugs into the 240 receptacle and powers up my entire house. I just bought a plastic shed to house the Honda during rain storms. I plan to cut screened vents into it and install a box fan to circulate air. If im home, i will let a neighbor use the rv Onan if they need it.

Many years ago we lost power for 4 days after an ice storm. I kept the house warm and lit by running a cord inside from the motorhome generator. I spliced a 3 prong plug into the natural gas furnace so it would run from the generator. Probably not code legal but it worked!

One of the primary reasons we moved up to Payson {at 5,000'} was to find a property where I could store all of our toys {24' class C, car, truck, Rzr, Can Am Spyder and my cargo trailer} at home. We have two driveways that total 80 yards {55 and 25} and a second {free standing} garage on our .57 ac lot. Beyond the obvious convenience I am saving $125 a month vs paying for storage. While we have yet to experience any power failures in the year we have been here we have the 4KW genset always available should we need it.

I widened one driveway 3' X 24' to enchance the parking pad for the motorhome and hired an electrician to add a dedicated 30 amp box adjacent the pad so the coach has AC 24/7. Now our smallish {1,400 square foot} 3 bedroom 2 bath house has become a 4/5 bedroom 3 bath abode as we can easily sleep 2 - 4 folks out in the coach if the rest of the house fills up... which we have done a couple of times.

Now before and after any trip we can do our prep, clean up and any general maintenance at our convenience. At our last home the HOA dictated how long {not very} we could keep the coach out in front as it had to be parked on our residential street which was a serious PITA.

About the only potential natural disaster that we might someday be subject too would be a forrest fire. If a fire commences anywhere near us we will go into full bail out prep mode. I can load all of our valuables from the safe to a large plastic tub in minutes. The coach is kept fully fueled {gas and LP} with half a tank of water that can be supplemented very quickly. Restocking the frig/freezer can be easily done.

I can hook up the cargo trailer to the coach and load our Can Am for use as a toad in about 20 minutes... turn the key and we are down the road and completely self contained for a couple of weeks. Our primary/most likely initial bail out area would be down the Beeline {Highway 87} 45 minutes to Roosevelt Lake where there are hundreds of sites. We could also head north on the Beeline or east on 260 depending on the weather and the location of the fire. Our best friends in Angel Fire NM {which is just an 8 hour drive from our house} put in a nice RV pad with hookups on their 2.5 ac slice of heaven so we will have that as a backup/longer term escape.

Here is a shot of our coach awaiting our next adventure:



:C