What to take
I am going to start an open ended trip first week of September. Generally the route of Old 66. We are going to go until we run out of interest or budget whatever comes first. I have a halfton and a...
Forum Discussion
jplante4 wrote:
So I looked at Phil's list and said "Holy Moly" then realized that for extended trips I carry pretty much the same. I've never found the need for a backup generator and I carried a spare tire for a while and finally dumped that. Stuff like spare water pumps and toilet valves etc. can be left behind if you have a toad to go fetch parts.
I got Benchmark maps for my trip out west and never got to the states I bought them for. A waste of $125 for sure. They are pretty though and made for some great arm chair dreaming in the off season.
The "Holy Moly" part is how I bring it all along space-wise and weight-wise:
- Space-wise -> our small Class C is a basement design ... meaning it's outside storage cabinets are taller than normal, plus a couple of them go all the way laterally across the RV between the chassis frame members and under the coach floor for long items so that I don't have to store them in the shower! The downside of a "basement design" is the coach floor is about 4 inches higher than the cab floor ... so I can't take advantage of having a passenger cab seat that swivels to face back into the coach as an additional lounge chair.
- Weight-wise -> our small Class C is on the optional-for-it's-size E450 chassis instead of the more common E350 chassis, so my running weight is probably around 2,000 lbs. less than what the chassis is rated for. This makes for a rougher ride - but more beef in such things as the brakes, the driveshaft, the frame's steel thickness, and the rear differential ring gear as well as the differential's load pulling 4:56 gear ratio.
Regarding room in a PU for a bunch of stuff while pulling a trailer ... ya otta see what my BIL did! He built a custom equipment/junk storage area within the shell that covered the bed of his half-ton PU that pulled his TT RV. His custom storage area had loads of nooks, crannies, and pigeon-holes for a huge inventory of camping stuff that he brings along with - now catch this - most of the nooks, crannies, and pigeon holes LABELED for what's to be kept in them!! He had me beat in spades with the labeling that he did.