RV Neophyte

[Dreamin2005]

Hi. I've been visiting here for the past week and share all the good tips I've read with my husband. There is SO much good information here, he wanted me to ask some questions. We hope to full-time next spring. We have never RV'd, but we're planning on renting in a couple of months. We've been reading and reading, and reading some more - already have information overload. :bleh: Here goes:
(1) What is the average length black water hose you want to have on hand? What do you do if the hose isn't long enough once you get to the camp site? :dead:
(2) Where do you go for oil changes? Truck stops?
(3) I know there are many variables, but what's the average gas mileage for a 29-30' Class C V10 engine?

Thanks for any and all help. I suspect I will be visiting here often as we get closer and have more questions.

 

[Gary B]

RV Neophyte

Hi Dreamin2005, welcome to the forum. Generally a 20' hose will due the job, if it isn't enough and I weren't stay for a long time (a week or less) I 'd just wait till we are leaving then go to the dump station on the way out. If staying longer maybe purchasing another 10' hose and a coupler to get to the connection. A truck stop may due a oil change, many Ford dealerships will due it and some tire and oil change shop will, and of course larger RV service centers, many jiffy lube stores won't due size of the rig. You can figure about 7 to 8 mpg, you may get as low as 5.5 in heavy head winds and up to 9/9.5 with a tail wind. Yes come back often their are many here to help. :laugh: :bleh: :approve:

 

[ARCHER]

RV Neophyte

DREAMIN2005, HELLO.
I change my own oil/filter/air filter/plugs, etc., on a Class A. It saves me a big bundle that I can spend on Gas.. :dead: , ha ha. It really isn't any different to do it yourself, if your hubby can do it on a car, he can do it on a Class C.
Of course, major stuff should be left to the PROs.

 

[hertig]

RV Neophyte

So far I've only used a 10' section of sewer hose, and that was often too long. Always carried a second 10' section just in case, but haven't needed it yet. I recently got a 12' piece of rhino hose which collapses down to 3 feet or so; if I like it, it will be my primary hose, with those 2 10' sections as extentions.

My primary water hose is 25', but I often use a 10' or even a 4' because that's all that is needed and it's less of a hassle to use. I also carry a 50' reel of that collapsable hose and a Y joint just in case. As for electrical cord, I rely on the built in cord (30' perhaps). However, I do carry a 50' heavy duty extention cord, which with adapter can power the trailer to some degree.

In fact, the only time I ever had problems making any connection was when my 50' of coax was not quite long enough. It took me 10 minutes of routing it over the picnic table and under the trailer through the frame to hook up (not enough length to go round the trailer, or from box to ground and back up to trailer). Now I've got a second piece of coax and a connector and will probably never run into that situation again

I don't have a phone attachment yet, but if I did, would probably also go with a 25' and a 50' cord for that.

 

[Kirk]

RV Neophyte

quote:
(1) What is the average length black water hose you want to have on hand? What do you do if the hose isn't long enough once you get to the camp site? :dead:
(2) Where do you go for oil changes? Truck stops?
(3) I know there are many variables, but what's the average gas mileage for a 29-30' Class C V10 engine?


We have now been fulltimers for four years and we have owned an RV of some type since 1974, so I will base my anwsers on that experience.

1) I would suspect that the most common waste hose is the 10' one. Which is best to use as your primary one depends mostly on the type of storage that you have. Our class A motorhome has a built in storage area that allows the hose to remain connected to the sewer dump when stored. For that reason I use a 20' hose as the primary one. And we also carry a connector for connecting two hoses together that is available at any RV supply store and an additional 10' hose. We rarely need the longer one and have never had any need to use any more than 30'. If we did we would just do as Gary B suggests.

2)Like most RVers, I do most of my own oil changes, particularly for the motorhome. That is a considerable savings and if you use one of the drain pans with storage in the bottom you can use that to take the waste oil to any store that sells oil for disposal. If not, then most tire stores can do oil changes on motorhomes. A few of the quick oil change shops will also do them.

3)Gas mileage depends upon many things besides the engine that your motorhome has. The weight and aerodynamics are major factors. The condition of the engine also plays a part. But the biggest single factor of all is the driver and how they drive the RV. If you make jackrabbit starts, wait until the last moment to apply the brakes and then brake hard, and drive at or above the speed limit for most of your travel, you will not get very good mileage. I have seen reports of mileage with the Ford, Triton V-10 that range from 5.5 mpg to as high as 10 mpg. Keep in mind that if you buy a new coach, that engine has a pretty long break-in period. Our mileage did not get very good until after we had more than 5000 miles and it really took 10,000 miles to settle into a steady pattern. And speed is a major player. With modern motorhomes, once you reach a moderate highway speed, each 5mph increase in speed will lower your mileage by 10%. We travel in a class A motorhome of 35' with an over the road weight very close to 18,000#. We accelerate gently when leaving a stop and we coast our speed down when anticipating a stop. And we usually have our cruise set at about 58mph. We average about 9.1mpg for most of our travel unless we are in mountains. We have gotten as low as 7.2 and as high as 10.3mpg.

This should give you some ideas to work with. The fulltime lifestyle should be a leisurely one with no ruch to get anywhere. After all, as the signs for home sales say "If you lived here you would be home now!" We do and we are!