Видео

I'd definitely love to compare notes! I think that's something that's really missing out in RUclips land - a good comparison of the two systems. We're still getting our feet wet with working - so far so good but it's certainly different than before!

@@TheJoslynJourney Oh, and I'm another one who built out an unlifted truck! Plenty of ground clearance and I can raise the truck about 3" from normal ride height if needed. In low I have plenty of clearance to get under the camper without blocks or leg extensions. I did put slightly larger tires on my truck. The stock 19.5" tires are about 32" diameter. I have 20" DDC wheels and 34" tires. Excellent combination and looks great. (to me)

Very interesting! Did you run with 19.5" tires before you upgraded? We'd love to hear your thoughts about changes you saw after upgrading your rims/tires.

@TheJoslynJourney No. I didn't ever drive the truck with the OEM tires. Upgrading the tires & wheels was in the back of my mind when we were spec'ing out the truck. But when we saw it nearly finished but still OEM tires & wheels the first thing my wife said was "those have to go!" She was totally right. I've emailed you photos of before & after. It totally changed the look of the truck. Plus any Discount Tire (or other) can service/replace my tires. I don't need a truck stop. I did lose about 600lbs of payload in changing but I was able to add TPMS.

@joz_tec Thanks for sharing!

I'm hoping it was the right choice. Maintenance and fixes while on the road were a big factor in why we chose this path. We did check Liquid Springs out, but they were frankly kind of rude and wanted nothing to do with our rig. Oh, and they wanted us to remove our 2nd fuel tank. No bueno.

You've got it DOWN! Glad we could join you!

We sure hope so! My expectations are high, so we'll see 🤞🏻🤞🏻

Agreed... Insurance is cheaper if you have a bigger accident. And with us being full-time on the road, our chances of getting into an accident are higher. Our vehicle is paid off, but we still keep comprehensive coverage so we won't have to pay for it all again. It's just annoying we have to pay commercial insurance rates on a vehicle that is only for personal use. *sigh*

@@TheJoslynJourney I feel your pain, but I also know you would have researched this when weighing choices.

Prices for insurance have risen over $1000 in the last 3 years. That's what we didn't account for.

@TheJoslynJourney Everything has doubled since 2020, EXCEPT fixed incomes and average wages. A septic pump company charged us $900 CAD for one hour's work, when the average for other companies is about $400, which also seems extreme to pump and haul 1,000 gallons. The base was $285 plus disposal fees of $185, but there were add-ons, including shoveling, fuel surcharge, etc?

That's certainly frustrating. But your right- this is the new price of everything.

You are spot on! We're rethinking our domicile location after all of these hurricanes since it's just gonna keep going. And probably more in FL than other states. It's lovely, ain't it? 😄

I think you're good- we didn't have to deal with this on our 3500. It's when you go to medium duty you start paying through the nose, yay! 😁

Yeah, that's how I felt too... Sorry, but better to not have to go through what we did (all the back and forth for nothing).

Yes, we have progressive auto for the travel trailer ( with full time policy adder) and the truck commercial insurance.

@@TheJoslynJourney Progressive is a rip-off insurance co

I think we will be thinking hard about our future usage since we do use them together 80+ percent of the time. But we're gonna suck it up and pay for now. Ah well.

@@TheJoslynJourney Wonder how much would the insurance be for a tow vehicle or a vehicle you leave somewhere when you mostly use the 20% of driving the truck? Would you be at break even?

It's definitely something to think about. But we'd have to buy the vehicle too, and maintain it. That's the main reason we got rid of the boat - motors don't like to sit around too much. We got the ebikes to be that bridge the gap, but that won't work well in November in central Illinois (a weee bit chilly!).

That is smart to have gone through all of the ways you use your rig. Definitely better than we did! This is one big reason why sticking with a 3500 is better than going up to a 4500 or 5500. Glad to hear you found a good plan!

Exactly!

First off, we would recommend you stick to what the factory says. That being said, the 75W140 stays thicker at higher temps and is good for heavy-duty applications. I read that the 85 might give you a smidge more fuel economy, but in all honesty, both will work just fine.

Howdy and thanks for asking. Both Gary and I wholeheartedly agree this was a worthwhile upgrade. It is a PITA to remove those trim pieces but we feel it's helped. My feet used to freeze when walking next to the slides in the winter. It's not nearly as bad now. Not perfect, but better.

@@TheJoslynJourney Thanks for the reply! Im told by a friend that the only way is to do both inside kick plates as well as add that 2nd slide seal behind existing. More head scratching with my Host. -J

Hmmm... I'm not sure what your friend is referring to. As far as we know, the only seal Host has is the double-lip seal on the outside of the slide. All we did was add a 2nd seal on the inside of the slide (for each slide). This is the best plan if you're traveling during the winter. If you're planning on being stationary, you can seal from the outside (there have been posts on the Host FB page showing those options). Since we move, we didn't look at that very closely.

@@TheJoslynJourney We have only one seal at the bottom of our slides. The sides and tops have a double seal Not sure if that helps but my friend is saying that we need to go in and add the second seal just behind the existing on bottom of all 3 slides. Its a head scratcher as to why they doubled up everything but the bottoms. I'm guessing yours is not the same. We have a '22 Mammoth. My friends is also a '22. Maybe they were running low on rubber. Thanks!

Seeing fireflies would have made it pretty amazing! We didn't see the cemetery on the hike. Maybe we were blind, ha!

@@TheJoslynJourney We actually went the wrong direction looking for it the first hike day...If I remember correctly, it was actually more toward the entrance...small little maintenance type trail. it was a short hike....less than a mile round trip.

Man, we must have just missed it. Guess that gives us a reason to stop again in the area. In maybe a year or so once folks can get back to normal up there.

Such a beautiful area. I do love north Alabama and need to go back again!

We're NEVER hard on our rig. 😂

Ha! Everyone has a different mindset. Ours is being over prepared to balance out the under prepared. 🤩

That was a big factor in our decision. But the prices for these things, oh my.

Hope it helps!

For additional context. I told them I would be removing the Host periodically to use the truck for "around town" driving, to which they told me it would not be eligible for insurance as an "RV" as the Host would have to be permanently fixed to the truck for that classification. Looks like you are already double verifying your policy, but there may still be some holes in it if your use-case doesn't align perfectly with the underwriters understanding.

Hmmm.... perhaps that's why they're taking a bit longer to get back to me on my questions! We have ebikes as our commuter "vehicles". Not sure if that will count. We mentioned the fact that we take our camper off the truck when we got the insurance, but perhaps that comment was overlooked. Either way, we'll put a video of our update once we hear back from them.

Glad it helped!

Glad you enjoyed it!

We've heard so many horror stories of damage due to freak winds, etc. we don't put it out a ton. We did show our setup in this video: ruclips.net/video/ht3jkPA1Em8/видео.html. We try to point to the south for best solar so mornings on the passenger side can get very toasty. The awning does help to keep that side cooler and helps the refrigerator stay more consistent. But the fear of damage is real. And the awning caps are basically tree fodder - we gave up replacing them and just duct tape them together 😄. If I was going to put one on my rig that didn't have one, I'd probably look for one that can be angled downward. These electric ones just go out and back. Having one that can be angled down could help in the rain (ours puddles and we have to use a broom to lift the material up to drain. Just a thought!

Thanks!

This unit is 110V, so I need my inverter on to use it. If you're not plugged into shore power, your battery bank has to be pretty significant to use to any decent length. Although I'm not sure if that's what you're asking?

So you don’t need 30amp only 110 amp

Sorry, this doesn't make sense to me. Do you mean 30A shore power vs 50A shore power? If that's what you're asking, then yes - we run off a 30A power cord. No issues with a smaller electrical panel.

Thanks

It's like the mile high club but not as fun!

All of our videos are to provide information on what we've learned - good or bad. We make mistakes all the time, but we try to be open enough to share them to prevent others. If I had that philosophy, I'd never put out a video, ha!

Yeah, we are still struggling with this as well. It's not all the time, but enough to be annoying. We were just talking about that yesterday - there's got to be a solution! Yesterday Gary threatened the alternative - putting the pee "bucket" back in and dumping every 2-3 days - with that alternate, I'd rather deal with the periodic pee smell! I was wondering if one of those HepvO valves might work, but not sure if there's enough room in there. I'll have to bring it up *carefully* 🤣

@@TheJoslynJourney I'm sure you'll come up with a solution. We agree though, we rather deal with the smell rather than emptying the bucket all the time. If we have our maxair fans pulling air out of the rig, it smells, but not so much pushing the air into the rig. We looked into the hepo valve and worry it'll get too many pee crystals and stop working. I feel the p trap is helping a decent amount.

I certainly hope so! We're still getting used to it, but will be giving an update in a month or so about how much it's extended our travel. We're looking forward to winter coming!

So glad you got to see your TC in there! We're currently planning on attending as well in 2025, so hope we see you there. And you're so right - we went this past year and ate $6/gal diesel there for a short while. We then learned to try and stay closer to the Nevada border, ha! Might be a *weee* bit more difficult doing that on the coastal side. The price you pay to visit CA, I guess.

@TheJoslynJourney If there's somewhere or someplace you want to see or do, don't let the fuel stop you. Darn those torpedoes and full steam ahead I say.

I didn't get the impression that this would change that feature. We still have a separate travel trailer policy. And we do take the camper off any time we're staying at a place more than a week or so. I'm going to recheck with FCIS to officially clarify. Thanks for the comment!

I too have a separate policy for my truck camper. One for when it's on the truck (commercial) and one for when it's off the truck. I'm interested to hear feedback from FCIS as my Progressive policy renews next month.

I sent the questions this morning so hoping to hear later today. Will definitely keep you in the loop!

Glad you thought the video was helpful, and you have some great questions. As far as the conversion goes, the only paperwork that changed was the insurance side, nothing else (so very easy). I am checking on the other questions directly with FCIS since I *thought* I knew the answers, but now I'm second-guessing myself. I believe they are fine separate since you still have two separate policies. I'm also checking on the Mexico thing, but I'm thinking that might just give you some additional documentation to try and help "convince" the border patrol agent to recategorize in Mexico. My guess is that you still may need to "help" that along at the border. But I'll be back with some more concrete answers!

Yes. They are two separate policies, but with the added rider for liability when attached.

It never hurts to check - let me know how it goes for you! Let them know we sent ya!

No wonder it costs so much to get things shipped in the US! But we're grateful for folks like you who have figured out what's needed to get the job done.

Oh man, now that really sucks! These things are not really designed well for newer phones. We only charge one in the front and one on the rear. And oh boy, that Florida heat should be the test place for electronics. And I'm sure replacement is a pretty penny.

That's the best way to extend the life of your tank. I just couldn't get over the to thing until I found that smart trash can - Mr. McStinkers, 😄

Still in Alaska thinking stage. And definitely will update. I'm also interested in how long!

Now THAT'S an experience! Sounds like a place I need to add to our trip list, thanks for sharing!

Will have to check them out. I know we've watched both of them but must have missed those videos.

We were so thrilled that Reico even reached out to us and asked if they could reference our video on their site! So I guess it's decent!

Yeah, I agree that most folks wouldn't want to do this AND don't need to do this. We're trying to see if we like it - I think the jury is still out for us personally. Doing a lot of the water-saving ideas we mentioned (and others), you can save a LOT of water without needing to go this level (like Sears tower height level, ha!).

It is certainly a bit different than I was expecting too! And you're right - once she summits to the top, she still has to make the trek back down. I would say that this update is best for the serious off-grid folks. Most will not need this level of time off-grid. I'm still unsure (still have a pesky gnat issue) so I'm not saying good or bad. But man, my butt and calves are TOTALLY gonna be BUFF by next summer, hahahaha!

Interesting idea! How much power does the incineration toilet? Do you do off-grid camping? What did you do with the space where the black tank is located?

Thank you! We knew it wasn't going to be an easy install but so glad we made it workable. And I'm so glad I found that trashcan!

Why, thank you! We definitely had our share of issues, but liking it so far, and we are also tickled by that garbage can - I need to come up with a good name for him!

Glad you enjoyed it! We couldn't lower the platform unless we were willing to remove the black tank entirely. We're trying to use that exclusively for washing hands since it doesn't get full very quick now. And yeah, Gary def prefers a tree to sitting, but guess most guys would, ha! I'm looking forward to testing out how long our fresh tank will last. I'm *hoping* 4 weeks!

@@TheJoslynJourney If I understood you the pee and shower (BR sink also) go into the black tank. Kitchen sink only goes into grey, is that correct?

The gray tank connects the kitchen sink and the shower. The old black tank has the bathroom sink and the new pee tank. The pee tank will likely last a ton longer than the shower/kitchen sink, so we may elect to put some shower water or dishwasher water down the old black tank to give us more room. But time will tell!

Wow, I must have missed that one- I'll go and check it out.