help decide on upgrades/mods for long term part time

[Searching_Ut]

We're now less than 18 months out of retiring, and purchased the retirement rig now, intending to work out the bugs, and upgrade as required for the heavier than we're used to usage we intend to put on the new setup.

In looking at our logs for the last five years, our normal usage is 6-8k miles of travel a year, a few longer trips of up to 2 weeks at a time, most are 3 or 4 day trips with one way travel of 400 miles or less. Most trips were to forest service off the paved road campgrounds, followed by most of the western state National parks or state parks for the more developed stuff. Maybe two or three RV parks a year. Future plans are to spend weeks or months at different locations in order to explore more in depth at a much more relaxed pace. Alaska, the east coast, and spending a lot of time in Canada are on the agenda. The new rig is also much larger which will result in our having to adapt new routines, and of course we'll be spending a lot of time in the RV vs it just being a place to sleep which will be a big change for us as well.

Given the changed use of the RV, what mods would we probably find most useful? How should I rack and stack what I should add this winter right away, and what I should take a wait and see approach to?

Old TT ran virtually everything of DC. New one needs AC for TV, Stove vent fan which is part of microwave etc. With the bigger rig will I find myself forced into spots with at least elec, or will I still find a lot of options for off grid stuff? For those running inverters are you running whole house or dedicated circuits, and are you happy with the choice you made, or do you wish you went the other way?

From the posts I've seen, if we're going to use hookups much we'll want a power management system. Are thefts of portable ones that common, or is the general consensus to go with a hardwired system?

Washer/Dryer or combo unit seems like a no brainer to me, but the wife seems to think she would be okay using campground laundry's on occasion. While she's thinking that would be fine, she hasn't ever had to do it due to the shorter length trips we normally take. Thoughts?

What am I missing? I'm sure spending months vs days in the RV will include us wishing we had a lot of stuff we don't currently have.

BTW, we have all the outside stuff, screen room, grills, stoves, dutch ovens, chairs and tables, portable ice maker and blender etc. so I think we're pretty good there.

[Searching_Ut]

I hadn't thought about adding water to the fresh water tank. I have a couple 15 gallon portable tanks, and several 5 to 7 gallon tanks as well as a water thief, but the new 5er doesn't have a gravity fill so I can't just dump a few extra gallons in like I'm used to doing. I'll have to figure out a pump setup, and I'll need to explore the waste hauling options. Great inputs, and I am making list.

The battery bank, possible solar thing I need to think through. We only got to use the new rig for 3 short trips, 7 days total, all hookup sites so I don't know what to expect battery life wise from the 2 group 24's I have. I don't anticipate they will last long though. Although most of the lighting is LED, the fridge, water heater etc seem to be more power thirsty than the stuff in my old Timber Ridge. I have 2 champion 2000 inverter generators currently so I can hopefully run at least 1 ac unit in a pinch, or the microwave if really needed. historically though I've only used a single generator to run the hair dryer in the morning, and a couple hours every few days in order to charge the batteries back up to 80 to 90 percent. (I won't even try to explain the hairdryer while at a remote site) We never were out long enough that I worried about not bringing the batteries up to full charge while on the trip. Thinking about it now, that's not a good idea for weeks or months on end.

[agesilaus]

If you want to continue off the grid then you should look at a solar panel setup. With those and some extra batteries a lot of people manage to get by. It requires power management on your part, thinking about how much power a utensil requires and so on. Switching to all LED lighting helps with that since it greatly reduces the load from lights.

My wife is the same and just prefers to use the CG washer and drier. You would definitely only be able to run those on shore power.

The other thing you have to think about is water and wastewater control if you plan to stay off grid for weeks at a time. People use these wastewater totes assuming there is a dump near by.

Amazon

Hauling drinking water is a different issue, if there is a faucet semiclose to your campsite you may be able to use a water thief to get water to your camper, it lets you connect to one of those faucets without threads:

Amazon

Otherwise you'll have to get some containers and a pump to move water into your tank. I've heard of people using a 55 gal drum but I don't think I'd want to haul one around with me, multiple 5 gallon containers would probably work.

Amazon

Those are collapsable and won't take up a lot of room.

[Halmfamily]

I would not be without our washer and dryer. The wife insisted on them and they've made our trips more enjoyable. We are not retired or full timers but spend several at the lake in the summer.

Have fun in your travels. Only twenty years to go for us.....