bigfatguy
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Angled propane fill elbow? Rubber hose?
The propane fill in my ERA 170M is a shade too low to the ground, and the large pistol-shaped feed device used at Flying J's can't quite make the connection without the ground interfering. I don't really want to muck with the mfg's installed propane system, I'd like to find some kind of flexible or angled adapter that I could install. I'm pretty ignorant of propane based technology (I'm a charcoal man, myself...), does such a device exist? Thanks for any advice you can offer.1.3KViews0likes3CommentsRe: One Last Sanity Check: New ERA 70C vs. Used Free Spirit SS
Davydd wrote: The ERA is built on the extended body and is about 16" longer than the Free Spirit SS. Since both have the same 170" wheelbase the plans are almost identical from the back wheel wells forward. Because of that you don't get much benefit out of the 16" other than more bathroom space with the ERA. Both already eat up so much space with bathrooms making the slide out necessary to fit a bed in. The era is rated at 11" (23'4" vs 24'3") longer than the SS, and I prefer to think of it as having a slide out provides enough room that I don't have to sit on the toilet while washing my hair.279Views0likes0CommentsOne Last Sanity Check: New ERA 70C vs. Used Free Spirit SS
a year ago (2, maybe?) my wife and I rented a Free Spirit SS and spent almost a week driving around Arizona. We loved it. As we returned it, we decided that THIS was the RV we were going to buy. Then we find out it was no longer in production. Today, I spent some time sitting in an RV dealership in a 2015 ERA 70C. We both liked it... a lot. When we plunk down our down payment at the end of this year, we're both thinking it's going to be a 70C. Three features we both like (at least in theory) are: 1: the bed isn't motorized, and comes out faster and easier because of it. 2: The "Hydronic" heating system sounds like it will work a hell of a lot better than the noise-maker that was installed in the SS. 3: since the same heating element from the heating system is used to make hot water, we're hoping this means the hot water won't go through sudden cold spurts like the SS did. Aside from that, they seem very similar. I'm basically just checking, since this group knows much more about RVs than I, if there's some deep dark secret of Winniebago's class B's that should make me think twice, or push me to a used Free Spirit? Thanks for your time!2.3KViews0likes6CommentsRe: RV Rental With Driver? Possible?
>It might be cheaper to buy a train. I'm sure... in fact, I just realized the roughly $3500 price tag on our last Amtrak trip was ROUND TRIP to NYC... which means my ceiling got a lot lower... Ah well, it was a fun idea... >Do you have an RV ? if don't own one, but that idea had occured to me... find someone who could use a vacation, let them drive it home... >Why a long day in a rental car? There is an Amtrak station in Ft. Lauderdale. sometime last year the route from Los Angeles to Florida was cut. It now doesn't go east of New Orleans. The Ft Lauderdale station only serves northbound east-coast trains now. Truth be told, my main concern isn't so much the driving the rental car, as the unreliability of Amtrak in the winter... Thanks, all...651Views0likes0CommentsRV Rental With Driver? Possible?
I promise, I'm not as full of myself as this makes it sound. :-) My wife and I both really hate to fly. We're going to need to get (only one-way) from Los Angeles to Ft. Lauderdale next year. Amtrak gets REALLY expensive when you get sleeping quarters, and this specific route will be two days on a train followed by a long day in a rental car. For what Amtrak will charge, it occurs to me there must be some kind of "executive transportation"/"band transportation" type service where they'd provide an RV, a driver, etc... I can't find any such service online. Am I crazy? Does such a thing exist?3KViews0likes17CommentsRe: How durable/reliable are slideouts?
Thanks, all, for an entertaining answer to my question. My wife and I are determined to find out just how small of an RV we can travel in without killing each other, our next trip will be in a rented Roadtrek class B. Durability is, indeed one of my concerns with regards to a slide-out... not just in the stuck-out-and-can't-drive-away sense, but we do like the idea of an RV that can handle some rough roads and has 4x4 drive, even if we don't take it into what would normally be called "off-road"... I had not thought of the weight penalty for a slide, I didn't realize it was as much as 500lbs per slide! (what can I say, I'm an electrical engineer... mechanical stuff scares me) Thanks, again.414Views0likes0CommentsHow durable/reliable are slideouts?
As I look around at various RV's to eventually figure out what I'd like to buy, one of the designs I really like has a rear-facing slideout. With it in, the bed is a sofa, and if you slide it out the sofa becomes a bed, but if it were to break the sofa would be stuck as a sofa, and I'd have nowhere comfy to sleep. How reliable are slide-outs? If they do fail, is it possible to manually drag the slide-out out? I know I'm being paranoid... it's the price of being an engineer...8.5KViews0likes46Comments
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