I'm new to the forum, and have found a lot of help with google searches that land me on this site a lot, so thought I'd give back a little on what I've done with the information I have gathered.
I bought a class C in December specifically because it had a garage type toy hauler that I thought I would be able to put a smart car in and tour the country. I had originally looked into a Four Winds Thor in Austin, TX and he had given me the dimensions of the garage and a smart car would fit. Though it had a factory roll up door in the back, and I'd have to use portable ramps. Not my first choice.
So I looked up a thor on ebay, and found one in NJ, and it had a winch ramp ***Link Removed***
Once I negotiated the deal over the phone, next step was to go buy a smart car, and ask the wife at 7am on a Sunday if she'd be willing to drive up to NJ with me to pick up an RV (she said "sure" lol)
So I go by a smart car off craigslist thinking that pulling up in an RV, lowering that ramp, and driving a white convertible smart car off the back of that thing would make everyone in an RV jealous that would ever see me do that!
So we drive up to NJ from Austin in one of our prius, get there, make the deal for the RV, and spend the night having fun in NYC before heading back to TX. Fun night for sure!
Next day we head back to TX, get here, and no one can tell me the capacity of the ramp! Someone suggests 1600 lbs, so close enough. I line up the smart car, jam it up there to the garage and we are 3" too long! Thor's apparently come in different sized garages (bummer!!!)
So I buy a scooter, throw it in the back, and want to go boondock for more than a week. We are going to need water, power, food, propane, etc for a long time. So let's do some upgrades.
First of all, the water tank on board is 20 gallons. That's about enough to flush the toilet 10 times, much less take a hot shower once a day for 3 weeks.
So first thing I do is throw out the "lounge chair" that's across from the dinette, buy another dinette off craigs locally and install that.
Plus this gives me some more storage. So I put another 20 gallons water tank in there and three more batteries.
Now to tie the new tank to the existing, I ran a half inch poly water line from the original tank's vent line.
Now when you fill the original tank, the overflow goes into the secondary tank. This means the original fill on the orig tank must now be pressurized, so you have to fill it slowly. But it does push air then water into the second tank. And then there is a vent to atmosphere on that side of the coach. ***Link Removed***
Of course, you then cap the water fill line, because a vacuum will now be made by the water pump pulling water from orig tank, which then pulls water from the second tank into the first.
So that's 40 gallons, still not enough.
What next? 55 gallon drum, of course!
So you fill the 55 gallon drum with water, run a solar panel to the battery for the pump at the back, and then of course install a pump. Then run a hose up to your city water connection, and turn off the inside pump. Now you will drain the 55 gallon first! Works perfect, and because it's a water pressured hose, you can even wash your RV!
So that's 95 gallons plus the 6 in your hot water heater (propane one). Then I installed after the propane water heater an electric 4 gallon water heater, but how you going to power that? That took some figuring.
So I bought a 3000 watt inverter, and hooked up some solar panels.
So now you can plug the RV into itself!
***Link Removed***
I have to go have lunch with my wife, will post more later!
I bought a class C in December specifically because it had a garage type toy hauler that I thought I would be able to put a smart car in and tour the country. I had originally looked into a Four Winds Thor in Austin, TX and he had given me the dimensions of the garage and a smart car would fit. Though it had a factory roll up door in the back, and I'd have to use portable ramps. Not my first choice.
So I looked up a thor on ebay, and found one in NJ, and it had a winch ramp ***Link Removed***
Once I negotiated the deal over the phone, next step was to go buy a smart car, and ask the wife at 7am on a Sunday if she'd be willing to drive up to NJ with me to pick up an RV (she said "sure" lol)
So I go by a smart car off craigslist thinking that pulling up in an RV, lowering that ramp, and driving a white convertible smart car off the back of that thing would make everyone in an RV jealous that would ever see me do that!
So we drive up to NJ from Austin in one of our prius, get there, make the deal for the RV, and spend the night having fun in NYC before heading back to TX. Fun night for sure!
Next day we head back to TX, get here, and no one can tell me the capacity of the ramp! Someone suggests 1600 lbs, so close enough. I line up the smart car, jam it up there to the garage and we are 3" too long! Thor's apparently come in different sized garages (bummer!!!)
So I buy a scooter, throw it in the back, and want to go boondock for more than a week. We are going to need water, power, food, propane, etc for a long time. So let's do some upgrades.
First of all, the water tank on board is 20 gallons. That's about enough to flush the toilet 10 times, much less take a hot shower once a day for 3 weeks.
So first thing I do is throw out the "lounge chair" that's across from the dinette, buy another dinette off craigs locally and install that.
Plus this gives me some more storage. So I put another 20 gallons water tank in there and three more batteries.
Now to tie the new tank to the existing, I ran a half inch poly water line from the original tank's vent line.
Now when you fill the original tank, the overflow goes into the secondary tank. This means the original fill on the orig tank must now be pressurized, so you have to fill it slowly. But it does push air then water into the second tank. And then there is a vent to atmosphere on that side of the coach. ***Link Removed***
Of course, you then cap the water fill line, because a vacuum will now be made by the water pump pulling water from orig tank, which then pulls water from the second tank into the first.
So that's 40 gallons, still not enough.
What next? 55 gallon drum, of course!
So you fill the 55 gallon drum with water, run a solar panel to the battery for the pump at the back, and then of course install a pump. Then run a hose up to your city water connection, and turn off the inside pump. Now you will drain the 55 gallon first! Works perfect, and because it's a water pressured hose, you can even wash your RV!
So that's 95 gallons plus the 6 in your hot water heater (propane one). Then I installed after the propane water heater an electric 4 gallon water heater, but how you going to power that? That took some figuring.
So I bought a 3000 watt inverter, and hooked up some solar panels.
So now you can plug the RV into itself!
***Link Removed***
I have to go have lunch with my wife, will post more later!
