Took the plunge my first Class C and first RV forum...

Welcome. Looks like you have some good answers so far. I have benefitted greatly from this forum.

Jose

Congratulations, and I'm sure you will have great times.

On the CB: I'm about to install a CB (my first) and I got the mobile unit from Amazon at a better price than CW. Then I did exhaustive research on antennae and decided to go with a dual mirror mount. After even more research I picked up the lightweight Firefly model by Firestik, the black side mounts, and the Non Ground Plane dual cable. After a lot of work and questions I now know how to open up my side mirrors so I can run the cable, and I won't have to drill any holes.

Firstik has an extensive FAQ section and tuning info you would find useful.

Firestik Library

I then picked up a pair of hand-held CB radios for mobile/outside use from ebay.

I also bought my radio from Crutchfield, came with free mounting hardware and adapter cable for my 1998 Ford E-350 MH. Fit perfect fist time. I purchased a Kenwood KDC-BT555U with the sat receiver. Mounted the sat antenna under the vent cap in the roof, takes some thought to run the wire, but works great.

Ford doesn't include audio equipment in the RV package, but the RV manufacturer installs something and sometimes orders the piece as an option over and above the standard RV equipment. More often they install a "RV radio" that includes a weather band.

By 2004 the weather radio was including a single disc CD player in addition to the cassette player. I don't know what was going on in car radios because I didn't buy a car between 1998 and 2004, I was in another country.

In China, Audi was still installing cassette players in the A6, a relatively high end car. No CD yet. I made cassettes from my CDs for my driver to play. He was OK with the tapes I made for my wife, but I gave him a Jim Croce tape to play for me on the way to work. Starting from the beginning, by the time we got to my office we were playing "Rapid Roy" or "Roller Derby Queen."

Driver Wu was starting to learn some English and really did not like those songs, so he brought his own tapes instead. Comedy. Chinese standup is Abbott and Costello type stuff, humor in the misunderstandings from using words that sound alike. Only the Chinese puns tend to be really risque, none of this "who's on first" stuff.

It became a non-issue, 90% of the time I walked the three miles to work, it was faster than trying to move a car through 7:30 AM traffic in the Second and Third Embassy Districts. When he carried us both around, Driver Wu played my wife's tapes.

Where am I going with this. With a cassette player, if you have a recorder you can put together your own tapes. But I suppose most people know how to put together their own audio CDs. Now, in a radio, I look for an audio input, my music library is played on an iPod. Just now synching the music I want to hear on a couple of 6-8 hour flights.

Congratulations!

BTW I love our cassette player in our 2003 Minnie Winnie! Our library sells the books-on-cassette for anywhere between 10 cents to 3 for a dollar! I have many and only spent four dollars. Listening to the books makes me wish we could drive more. I even got a -new- cassette player for the house! Can you believe it?! I listen as I do handwork or doing something like working out on the elliptical!

Wish I could add a cassette player to my 2012 vehicle.

Enjoy your RV. Ask questions at the campgrounds, too. People are willing to give advice. The forums are so helpful.

Mike and Leslie

Welcome to the fourm. There is alot of info here. Across the top is a FAQs area. and of course you know about searching too.

For supplies you will find Walmart is your friend. Most carry a good range of RV needs.

TV is very changeable. Some areas near cities get alot of stations other areas get none. If TV means alot to you, you may think about getting a Satilite(sp) system.

Thanks for all the replies and input. We took her for a 1 night stay at a nice campground about 20 minutes form the house, and it was awesome. We did have to rough it a bit though, the wife forgot the forks so we had to eat our steak with a spoon. That was tonguei n cheek coming from someone who camped in a pop up until now. :-). I feel as though i've reached the pinnacle of camping!! Set up and take down is soooo easy and takes sooo little time! Normally after breaking camp in the pop up i would be a hot, sweaty mess. It was nice to leave the campground feeling nice and refreshed instead of worn out....

The PO kept the sewer hose, which I discoverd before we left the house, the one thing I didn't notice however was that he kept the water hose as well.no worries we had some in the fresh tank, and we're used to usingthe bathhouse for everything except brushing our teeth in the camper.

I would also,as a minimum, check your coach and chassis batteries. Have them load tested, if possible. Your coach lights and fridge run off of 12 volts. Of course, the chassis battery starts the engine. You might want to check the genset to make sure it starts and runs and will provide power to the coach. Another option would be to "camp" in your driveway so if there are any problems, you have a refuge to retreat to.

For the radio checkout Crutchfield. I'm thinking of buying this Sony XAV-64BT DVD receiver.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_158XAV64BT/Sony-XAV-64BT.html
John

Regarding the refrigerator: If you have access to shore power and can park on a level spot, leaving the refrigerator on is no problem. We park in a storage yard and have no power, so we can't leave it on. The day before a trip, we turn on refrigerator on propane to cool it before loading up. Just remember, when parked the refrigerator must be level. Failure to do so will cause permanent damage.

Check out Jensen for a radio that does all the things you want. If your dash opening is what they call two din units (about 4 inches high) there are several choices available.