Introduce Yourself

[markopolo]

Welcome to all who have recently joined

[slipbobber]

Hello there. We are Michael and Jackie. We have 4 children and 5 grandkids. We are from Minnesota and still consider that home. I started playing with RV’s in the late 70’s. I went to tech school for two years for motorhome systems repair. My dad owned a used car/RV dealership back then. I got out of the RV service/shop management in the mid 80’s. My passion turned to the marine industry and had a decent career in boat rigging, service management, promotions and tournament fishing. My wife has been in the health care field as an administrator for most of her life. We now manage retirement communities for one of the largest companies in the country. Kind of long winded but that is how we got here, in Bloomington IN.

My first van was a 68 Chevy van totally custom with the orange shag carpet, rear bed, the works. Even a mural airbrushed on the side. “The Padded Cell”. Met Jackie in the van and brought her home to mom in it. Her mom did not like the first impression…. Anyway…. We have had 8 conversion vans over the years and 1 Class A Sportscoach. We are picking up our first true Class B tomorrow. A 1999 Leisure Travel with 32,000 miles. Our job gives us the time for a couple of 2-3 day trips a month and we love to travel.

I hope to post some of the mods I will be doing to the van and will answer any questions anyone might have. I read through some of the forums on this site and love it. This is going to be fun!!!

[markopolo]

Welcome to the forum Michael and Jackie A van with 32,000 miles on it is practically "new" to me. Sounds like a great find.

[SusieQ]

Hello to all.
My names is Susan but Susie Q is my nickname. My sidekick riding buddy security guard dogs name is Little Bit but his nick name is the Bologna Dog lol. We have clocked over a million miles together all over the states in a semi but we are trading that work in for a slow stroll down the back roads. I will remain a resident of Tennessee but live wherever I park that day. I have been watching the big screen "windshield" and seen some beautiful sites sunsets and starry nights. The draw to get off the interstates and see where every little road takes me has finally won out. Yeah!
I have lurked studied read here for a while and was so very thankful for all this information being in one place. My greatest thanks yall who shared, helped, cared enough to log on and post!

I bought me a "B" finally Wednesday. Its a 1989 chevy c20, Falcon. It has a 350 fuel injected motor and 700 r transmission those seem to be very working very good. The roof ac works good on land power. It needs coach batteries, a genset, tires, new flooring so I have some work to make it ready for travel. My first planned trip is Oct 1200 miles. Goal is to be full timing by spring.

[unclebob]

Unclebob, here, sayin' Howdy from Austin, Texas. My B is a '88 Roadtrek Dodge B-250 conversion and I'm just straightening out the previous owner's mystery modifications. I'll post about them in the general forum. The reason for the work I'm doing now is to get the RV ready for the Kerrville Fall Music Festival. I've been a regular at the Kerrville festivals since 1974, but took the last three years off due to health and aging issues. There's a country song with the line "I'm much too young to feel this damn old...". Anyway, just wanted to check in. See y'all on the other forums.

BC

[AK49er]

Hello to SusieQ and unclebob! If you are looking for help on your class B you've come to the right place. The folks here are Guru's on all that pertains to them, try them out and you'll see. Welcome to you both.

[taDtaP]

New to this forum and enjoy all the comments and opinions. I don't own a moho yet but hope to learn a lot from all of the experienced owners on this forum to help me make a good decision on what to buy. My plan is to make 3 to 5 week trips at a time once we retire. Thanks for providing this forum and being the moderator.
Dave

[markopolo]

Welcome Dave

[knotsplicer]

Hey,

We have had a Nash 22h for several years and love it. We recently bought a 2009 Pleasure-Way Excel TS for our road trips. We enjoy cruising the Oregon Coast, especially this winter, and will be heading east in a month or two.

We will be taking a shakedown cruise between March Madness weekends to get prepared for longer trips. Hope to see some of y'all out there.

Tony

[JRS950]

Hello all;
my name is jim and we just know getting the bug to buy a class "B" motorhome. We live in sunny Florida andwill mostly use the coach for getting to somewhere and spending time at that particular location, rthen moving on to new spot/destination. We have looked at the "C"'s, the B+ and have come back to the place we started and that is a B. Right now I am currently looking very hard at a used (slightly my term) 2012 Winnebago ERA 70X. The vehicle only has 19000 miles and looks very nice. I will ask about it in another section of this forum
hope to meet many of you down the road sometime soon.

Jim (soon to be B owner)

[pcpowernet]

Joined this forum exactly a month ago and just now discovered the intro thread. Just ordered a new 2015 Roadtrek CS Adventurous to replace the current Class C Forest River Forester. That rig was just getting a little too big for us for the kind of traveling that we are planning to do for (hopefully) the next few years and then one of our kids or grandkids will be able to have it.

Started Rv'ing about 50+ years ago with a truck camper, then a succession of campers, trailers and finally a motor home with a toad. Traveled twice to the east coast from Southwest Washington, once to Alaska - maybe 50 miles north of Fairbanks, Across the Canadian provinces, several trips to California and Texas. With the other rigs have visited every state except Hawaii, but did go camping there once without an RV.

We live here in rural Southwest Washington but just a short drive to Portland, Oregon, though there isn't much to attract us there very often. Have done a lot of mods to our rigs in the past but now as age creeps onward needed to look for something that didn't need much in the way of adding much. The Roadtrek seemed to fill that bill. We sure are looking forward to that new rig and hope it will arrive sometime in May. We do plan to travel to Ohio and Minnesota this fall and maybe a few other places as well. We will see how well the Roadtrek fills our bill. Also looking forward to keeping up with the several Class B forums that have sprung up lately which this one seems to be one of the better ones for being a little more technical. Good stuff!

Dave

[markopolo]

Welcome

[Yvan]

Hi all. My name is Yvan. I found this forum with Google. I don't own a RV yet but hope to buy one in the future. Hope to learn a lot from all of the experienced owners on this forum.
Yvan

[Begreen]

Greetings! My name is Will. I've been on this forum for a few weeks now and have already benefited from some good tips and knowledge. We are located in South Puget Sound and currently have a 2002 Dodge Roadtrek 190V.

[Rocketman53]

Hello, my name is Brian, and live outside Baltimore, MD. My DW and I both grew up in camping families, starting with those heavy canvas tents. We spent several years in Europe tent camping with our little Kawasaki 550 motorcycle for transportation. In-laws are full-timers with a 35-ft Suncruiser.

Like so many others here, I am going into full-time retirement soon. DW and I both would like to spend time seeing and re-seeing the USA, and neither of us wants a land cruiser after years of hearing about the adventures of the in-laws...like how toll booths can be a challenge with awnings. We also had a Toyota Dolphin years ago that didn't work out well. Bottom line, we wanted a vehicle we could use in our daily lives, drive and park painlessly, get necessary parts easily, easy to maintain, and not upset the HOA.

While visiting our son in California in October we saw several of these Chrysler/Dodge minivan-based Jucy rental campervans on the road...couldn't miss them in their garish green and purple livery. We coincidentally parked next to one at Sequoia National Park and peeked inside. Two German fellows renting the vehicle introduced themselves and were kind enough to give us a tour. Really a brilliant little vehicle, designed by Aussie yacht builders used to maximizing tight space. (BTW: My brother's boat shares many parts.)

Months passed and we perused the usual websites for the usual vehicles - either too many miles, or a bit rough at the edges, or too much $$$. Looked at various vehicles at the RV shows, too. Then there were the scam artists on Craigslist and other sales consolidator sites. One almost caught me...Caveat emptor.

Anyway, two surplus Jucys came up for sale from reputable dealers. Didn't take much convincing, and the asking was reasonable. Had all maintenance records and clean Carfax. My mechanic looked at all that and said it all looked good. The dealer was a good guy, and we worked out a deal - yes, sight unseen. My wife, daughter and two granddaughters flew to Utah and drove the vehicle home to Maryland. It ran flawlessly, and averaged about 30 mpg. (Dealer put on a new set of name-brand tires as a surprise goodwill gesture.) Undoubtedly, we now have the only one on the East Coast.

We've not had a chance to give it a camping run yet. We have tested all the equipment and all is working fine. The refrigerator was sufficient to keep frozen custard frozen from Ohio! I've added a Sirius radio, a back-up camera, and a few other small bits. I've got a few other things I'd like to do. If we run to schedule, we will take a weekend run before we head off to the "Big One" - a two or three week trip to Nova Scotia via the St. Lawrence, then down the coast home.

So, while not running a "common" rig, we are interested in what the diminutive Class B-class veterans do to gain the most enjoyment from their vehicles.

Nice to meet you all.

[wiljennie]

Originally Posted by markopolo

What type of Van do you have? Where are you from? Are you looking into getting a Class B RV? How long have you been RVing?

My husband and I live in Oneonta NY. We were SNOWED IN this year - and have been dreaming all winter and spring about converting a MB Sprinter for escaping and fun excursions - but as we come down to the wire of the actual buy - we are changing our minds from Sprinter to Transit.

Factors are:
1) I checked out future prices for diesel - I understand that diesel tax will go UP in the US - significantly.
2) The Eco Boost engine seems like a good idea.
3) I like the way the Transit handles
4) The wider sliding door make the van feel much more wide open
5) Where we live, its hard to get to a Mercedes dealership - would be rather a hassle to get it serviced.

So - we are excited and will buy within the next month - hoping we can find something that meets our specs. We plan to build very light and will have a couple of modifications that might be considered unusual.

1) I'm interested in designing what I'll call an "airdry" toilet. The "Compost toilet" is not likely to become accepted by RV'ers - confuses people who might think that you have to be a vegetarian or live in Seattle to use one.
2) We'll start with a Goal Zero solar system & slowly build a working solar system.
3) We have an idea for a bed that can be used as a couch that faces forward
AND backward.

In other words - we are having a lot of fun pondering and designing. More to come!

Looking forward to talking with folks who know a lot about Class B's.

Yours Jennie

[wiljennie]

See above - I'm not sure anything has gone through yet - this post if just for my own education. Thanks for your patience.

Yours Jennie

[Davydd]

This is a Jucy Campervan.



And to think one could have this too.

[Rocketman53]

Got your eye on that one, Davydd?

[/QUOTE]

[mass59k]

Might as well say hi too. Wayne and Paula..both retired teachers. Have 90 lb mountain dog. Just traded down from WB View to WB Travato 59k. Getting used to a van again..had turtle top and Road trek before. Putting miles, 2500, on already...heading up to Nova Scotia soon. Be safe out there. ..
Wayne from Mass