Should boat builders get into the RV business?

[BobB]

Originally Posted by renrut

This is true but I don't leave the BBQ on my boat. When I pack it for a trip, the BBQ goes on board. It's a table top one so it is kept inside and out of the weather. Most of the time, I use my small naphtha stove to cook with. Can't have greasy burgers every meal. I even used the stove in my boat once due to it raining outside. One thing I learned from camping is to cook and eat outside. Eating a meal on a picnic table and being outdoors is far better than being stuck inside. Birds chirping, leaves blowing in the breeze and just being close to nature is what getting out is all about.

You've got it! Agree wholeheartedly.

See too many BBQs on boats sitting out in the rain - not even a cover. If you take care of it, an inexpensive BBQ will last a long time

Even with our EVC, we really only use the inside propane stovetop if it is raining out and/or we are only in CG for a night or two. Otherwise set up a camp with coleman propane stove, weber propane grill (that's our oven) and collapsible SS charcoal grill.

[sheral]

Originally Posted by renrut

The video was interesting but I would think a 27 foot boat with only an 8 foot beam would be quite tippy especially in waves and crosswinds. Like the video says, it can be trailered without permits but it could have been up to 8.5 foot beam.

Don't mean to derail this thread, which is about Class B's, but the Ranger Tugs are anything but 'tippy.'

There are a lot of things that makes marine stuff seem more expensive than auto stuff... proper wire construction is different, metals used are different, specifications are usually much more stringent, etc. I'm not condoning the high prices for marine stuff but there's usually a required reason for higher prices. Living in a salt water environment, I will argue that a boat on the salt chuck and a car/truck/van parked even 100' off shore do live quite a different life.

[BobB]

Originally Posted by sheral

Don't mean to derail this thread, which is about Class B's, but the Ranger Tugs are anything but 'tippy.'

You have that right. I have been watching and listening to people with the Ranger tugs - anything but tippy. There is more to stability than length and width. Displacement and hull design are important factors. FYI - that 27 Ranger Tug weighs almost 7K pounds and has an 8'6' beam. Still, no one with one of these is going to cross the Atlantic or (if they have sense) go out in gale force winds and high seas. Still, this is NOT some open runabout.

[wincrasher]

Not only the weight and hull design, but these also have trim tabs, which help you stabilize the ride.

My plans are certainly not to go out in rough conditions. These are coastal cruisers. You also don't have the fuel capacity to make huge crossings.

Someday, maybe, I'll be brave enough to get over to the Bahamas. It will take several years to get up the confidence to do that.

[ClassB4Me]

I'm a huge Ranger Tugs fan. I have seen many and owners speak well of them. I would describe their approach as 'High on Functionality Without Being Overly Complex'. A basically equipped model is good or you can add options to meet your needs.

A great option for those planning their RV and / or Boating travel needs: Boaterhoming

https://youtu.be/be5KYOKbOYQ

[ClassB4Me]

Still, no one with one of these is going to cross the Atlantic or (if they have sense) go out in gale force winds and high seas. Still, this is NOT some open runabout.
__________________
The couple that own a R27 Tug maintain a boating log which includes everything from order, delivery, tow vehicle, and travel log. A very good read.

Kismet

[BobB]

Originally Posted by ClassB4Me

__________________
The couple that own a R27 Tug maintain a boating log which includes everything from order, delivery, tow vehicle, and travel log. A very good read.

Kismet

Before they had Kismet, they did one of the classic boat trips - the Great Loop - which is a circumnavigation of eastern North America. There are some variations, but basically one starts, say on the East Coast in the spring, heads north up the ICW, then the Hudson, to the canals that lead to Lake Champlain, up the Rideau, through more canals in Canada (now summer), then come back down through the Great Lakes to Chicago (fall), down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, up the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, then down the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to Mobile (winter) . The route then joins the Intracoastal Waterway going east to Carrabelle, Florida. Then you can cruise the Okeechobee Waterway to Stuart on the east coast of Florida or turn south to the Florida Keys rounding the southern tip of Florida, returning north to Stuart, and back up the ICW.

Takes about a year. Don't know what the RV equivalent is, but 2 years ago I ran into a motorcyclist who was doing what I remember as the "four corners" or something like that. One drives to the four most extreme corners - NW, SW, SE, NE - of the continental United States.

Oops, found it -it is called the USA Four Corners Tour - you have to do it in 21 days!

http://blog.jafrum.com/2013/05/12/gr...-corners-tour/

Any Class Bs up for that?

[wincrasher]

There is also one that circumnavigates the Great Lakes. It takes a month or two. Many boondocking sites and a few great looking State Parks.

The neat thing about a trailerable boat is you can do the Great Loop in sections. I know of one where they just moved the boat around, drove home, returned and did another section, drove home, and so on. Could be a cool way to do it.

[renrut]

I've met lots of loopers along my traveling. They take the Trent Severn Waterway from Lake Ontario up to Georgian Bay. It's 365km (226 miles) of beautiful waterways. A couple I met 2 years ago were retired military people from the US. They live in Florida on their boat and travel up the waterways every summer. He was a retired pilot and she was a retired nurse. Great people.

Back a little on topic, boat equipment is usually compact for using minimal space and designed for water and to be corrosion resistant. I would think a lot of boat accessories would work quite well in a Class B.

[wincrasher]

Some of the equipment is the very same. The water heater for example - it's the same unit that was in my 59G except they used the option to pipe water thru the engine to heat it when not in electric mode.

The Nova Kool 12v refrigerator is the very same model that's in my 59K.

The big item that is not the same is the deisel generator. It's MUCH smaller than a gas Onan, or a diesel Onan for that matter, but probably because of the raw water cooling enables it to be much smaller.

The Webasto heater may be of a similar size to what is found in RV's. I don't know enough about it to definitively comment on it. The reverse cycle AC unit is much smaller than a roof-top Coleman Mach, but again, it is water cooled, so I suspect the heat exchanger can be much smaller.

The stove/oven unit is the final thing that looks similar to what you'd find in an RV, but it's slightly smaller than what you'd get in a Class C or travel trailer. That size difference is most likely for no other reason but a desire to make it compact - no technical reason as they work on LP the very same way. It's an expensive unit because it's 100% stainless steel, not a sheet metal body like in RV service.

[gregmchugh]

Completely ignorant of boats, noticed this one has a 50 gal water tank and a 30 gal holding tank?

I assume that When you are docked you hook up to city water just like an RV and bypass the water tank and pump?

There would not seem to be any advantage to separate holding tanks and both grey and black go into the same tank?

On some boats I have seen that the toilet has what looks like a pump handle, do these boats not have a water pump or does this handle perform some other function? Would you have any boats that flush the toilet with water from the body of water you are in?

[wincrasher]

Yes, at dock you can hook up to both water and shore power if you like.

Sewer connections are not something you have. You have a pump-out hose that will suck out the contents of your holding tank. At some marinas, there is one on each dock, at some you have to go to a special dock for it. At others they have a portable unit on a trolley. I'm mulling the idea of getting a portable unit to use when I get home each trip.

The holding tanks is a black tank. The gray water (sink & shower drains) go overboard. Sinks usually drain directly and shower usually drain to the bilge which gets pumped overboard. 99% of boats work this way. Some specific locales are starting to require gray tanks for liveaboards. Normally, I try to use marine or camping soaps that are 100% biodegradeable, but there is no legal requirement to do so. So for all you that were aghast at the thought of dumping gray tanks on the ground, boats dump it in waterways all the time.

On the black tank, you also have the option to macerate it and dump it overboard. You have to be 3 miles out. Also, you need to have a lock on the valve so there are no "accidental" discharges.

Toilets use raw water to flush. Normally this is seawater. There are a variety of types - the manual ones are a vacuflush system that is pressurized. The one I'm getting is an easy to use electrical model - one push and it flushes.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

So for all you that were aghast at the thought of dumping gray tanks on the ground, boats dump it in waterways all the time.

Yes, and I can remember when bathrooms in trains had signs that said "Do not flush toilet while train is in station."

...don't make it right. Three miles out may be a different issue.

[BobB]

Originally Posted by gregmchugh

Completely ignorant of boats, noticed this one has a 50 gal water tank and a 30 gal holding tank?


On some boats I have seen that the toilet has what looks like a pump handle, do these boats not have a water pump or does this handle perform some other function? Would you have any boats that flush the toilet with water from the body of water you are in?

There is NO gray water tank on any boat I have sailed. The gray water goes down drains and goes into the surrounding water via through-hulls (by gravity).

Almost always the black water tank is above the waterline so - if offshore (more than 3 miles for US) - it can drain by gravity overboard. The toilet is below the water line. So when you use the toilet you need to pump the effluent up and into the black water tank (or overboard if more than 3 miles offshore).

Flush Water comes into the toilet from the surrounding water (typical) or from the fresh water tank. Often even if the water comes in from the outside, we often bypass this (there is small lever on the toilet - wet or dry pump) and only add a cup or two of water -just enough to flush. (1) The surrounding water (Chesapeake Bay) has organisms in it that really don't help the system (charter companies often request you do this).(2) it minimizes how fast the black water holding tank fills up. The holding tank is later pumped out using a vacuum hose to a holding tank system on land.

Oh, one more piece of info that may be TMI for some of you. Many sailboat charter companies and more than a few sailors have the rule "Nothing is to be put down the head unless it has been digested first" What this means is the toilet paper does NOT go down the toilet but is collected in a "head bag" which is put in with the trash when you are next on shore. The reason for this is (1) marine toilets easily clog, almost always from the toilet paper. It is a messy, stinky job to clean out a marine toilet (2) it minimizes how fast the holding tank fills up. You can go add days to the capacity, if you do not need to use all that water to flush the paper, too; the toilet paper takes up capacity, too.

Now before someone says "that's illegal" NO. Think disposable diapers. From Wiki "An estimated 27.4 billion disposable diapers are used each year in the US, resulting in a possible 3.4 million tons of used diapers adding to landfills each year." Yes, it is a problem, but it is NOT illegal. The key is that most fecal matter is supposed to go in the toilet; only the toilet paper used is disposed of in this way. ( ps The instructions on diapers say this, but many users ignore it, which is one of the problems)

I know - TMI, but that is how it works in the boating world

[gregmchugh]

Very good, thanks for the info...

At home, couldn't you use a macerator to pump the tank and send it down a sewer clean out if you have one located close enough to reach with a macerator hose. I have done it at home with my Roadtrek when needed.

[wincrasher]

Originally Posted by gregmchugh

Very good, thanks for the info...

At home, couldn't you use a macerator to pump the tank and send it down a sewer clean out if you have one located close enough to reach with a macerator hose. I have done it at home with my Roadtrek when needed.

Certainly. There is one portable unit that will suck out the tank and deposits it into it's own tank. It has a standard RV drain connector on it to gravity dump it into a sewer cleanout. The whole thing is about $700.

What I haven't figured out is if you flush out the onboard holding tank like you do with an RV tank. I hadn't planned to separate the paper though - I was going to use RV paper with dissolves pretty well.

[gregmchugh]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

Certainly. There is one portable unit that will suck out the tank and deposits it into it's own tank. It has a standard RV drain connector on it to gravity dump it into a sewer cleanout. The whole thing is about $700.

What I haven't figured out is if you flush out the onboard holding tank like you do with an RV tank. I hadn't planned to separate the paper though - I was going to use RV paper with dissolves pretty well.

I got it now, there is no low point connection to the black tank to attach a macerator to. I thought you mentioned you could use a macerator to dump the black tank offshore so I assumed you could do the same to send it down a sewer clean out.

[starfighter]

Li'L Snoozy is built by a former boat builder.
Not class B but.......................................

[Davydd]

Advanced RV is building an RV incorporating most boating standards. You will likely see it at the RV.net Lucky 13 B-13 Rally or Advanced Fest in May.

[gregmchugh]

Originally Posted by starfighter

Li'L Snoozy is built by a former boat builder.
Not class B but.......................................

That does look like a well built trailer that would last a long time...