Am I the only one

Recently while our camper was being repaired my wife said she felt like a room in the house was missing. She couldn't wait for it to get back in our driveway.

Yep, I have solar panels on the roof that keep the power steady. In case of outages or the need to flee - we are ready!

We keep the motorhome mostly packed and ready to go in storage. We got to put that in practice at the beginning of October when hurricane Matthew approached. We had just returned from our seasonal camping trip three weeks previously and had take some stuff out to clean, etc. Most of it was ready to go back in, just hadn't been taken to the MH in storage about a mile from home. It only took about an hour to pack it and get heading west.

When we returned, we had no power at the house. The generator was already running since we were running the rooftop A/C. We just ran a long extension cord into the house to run the refrigerator, lights at night and do a couple loads of wash (had to hang dry since our drier is electric - 240v). We also watched some movies at night.

I was surprised at how little gas the generator used running straight for almost 36 hours. We had a little more than half a tank of gas when we pulled into the driveway. When we pulled out after running the generator for almost 2 days, the needle had barely moved.

It is definitely nice having the motorhome so close to home in instances like that. We evacuated pretty early. We couldn't find a full hook-up site, but we did find an electric site about 3 hours away. On our way out west, there were portable road side signs claiming all hotels were booked and to keep heading west. We felt bad for folks looking for hotel rooms. The Walmarts along the way back were full over RVers waiting out the storm.

-Michael

Yep our 5'er is packed with mostly seasonal clothing and all ready to a whim or spur of the moment if needed, we even keep several cans of dog food for our dog. (we rotate them so there not out of date along with other foods). All we do is hook up and on the road we go.

We keep our TT ready to go all the time. Exception is when the weather gets below freezing and we're not actually using it at the time. Then all food items come inside the house. But our's ready all the time. Well .... we sleep in it every night too (at home), and even in the winter with no water, we use a port-a-potty and THEN take showers in the house! So, ours is ready all the time! Always packed. Removing chauks, boards under the jacks, and hitching up takes less than 10 minutes. Barely enough time for the truck (diesel) to even warm up, and we can be "out of here!"

We have always considered our RVs as an emergency shelter in case of a disaster or other event like your son's accident. It is always stocked with essentials and enough clothing for a week. I even keep the freshwater tank full. Since we live in earthquake country we have always said that if we couldn't live in the house or get to the house the RV would be the next choice since it is stored nearby but away from anything that would fall on it.

We do have 2- 2000 watt portable generators at home that can be used in the RV plus I keep a 1500 watt generator in the RV to use as a battery charger if I don't need the bigger generators.

Towable RVs do not come standard with an onboard generator unless they are of the toyhauler variety, nonetheless it is not too difficult to attain a quality portable inverter genny for your new TT. Compared to most Onans they sip fuel, a 5 gallon container of gas carried in the back of your truck could last days.

I see no reason why a TT can't be stored ready for the road, ours is stored in our side-yard always plugged in, fridge is on and fully stocked when not winterized. A few minutes to hitch up and away we go, our truck is dedicated to towing our rig and just sits in the garage fueled up and awaiting duty.

We love having an onboard Onan, pressing a single button to provide 120Vac to our rig as if plugged into shorepower. Unfortunately, Onan is way overkill 80% of the time. We purchased the Champion 3100 remote start inverter genny, like our Onan, a single press of a button and it easily powers our AC unit, even on eco-mode.

Living in earthquake / fire / electrical blackout prone California, my B seconds as my bug-out vehicle. It's stored an easily walkable )if necessary) 2 miles from my home, Black and grey emptied, FW full, batteries fully charged, propane at least 3/4 full, gas tank full (600+ mile range per full tank), after a trip. Non-perishables for at least three days, and a variety of hot to cold apparel remain in the rig.

In the event of a potentially threatening / damaging event, I'd just have to grab essential documents from my file and be gone.

Otherwise, it's always ready in the cases of just wanting to go RVing without spending time with preparations whether for a few hours or days at a time.

JnJnKatiebug wrote:
that worries if you don't have an RV packed and ready to go. We recently sold our MH and will take delivery of our new TT within the next two weeks.

We keep our RV about three miles from home in a covered storage facility. It was always fueled, packed and ready to go. Once when our son was involved in an accident three hours away we were on the road within an hour and stayed there for a week. I always felt prepared when I knew it was sitting there ready to go. I thought in case of a house fire or tornado that the RV was the backup plan. Hopefully within the month we will have the TT packed and ready to go as well but I will not feel totally prepared until I get a generator and have some extra fuel on hand. What I loved and will miss about the MH was the fact it had an on-board generator and the MH had a 100 gallon fuel tank.

At any rate I am just thinking out loud and wondered if I am the only one that thinks about things like this.

We feel the same as you and for the same reasons :w

I consider ours a great backup as well!! We have used in in this fashion, and it is always ready to go!