State RV laws & regulations

I have started a page on state RV laws, regulations, & requirements see it in the page section and I will add more per state in a all in one listing as I can.

Camping in states other than the one you live in.

In the near future I will be adding a page on RV laws in other states, I will start with the west since that is where I live. On the page will be requirements by state for driver license classes and needed endorsements and what widths and lengths of motor homes and trailers that are allowed and also if you can pull 2 trailers or not. Why am I going to do this page, because I have decided to pull a trailer with our UTV on it behind our fifth wheel and had planned on upgrading to a larger fifth wheel later and have found out I would be to close to the legal limit in to many states to do so, and as I do not like most toy haulers I have to have a trailer for the UTV . Besides even toy haulers can end up being to long for some states especially if it is over 40'.

Full Timing

We have been looking at down sizing and me retiring early and what we could keep stored and what we could take with. My jeep has been one that I was wondering about and I have come to the conclusion that it is to much weight to drag up and down steep mountains so we are buying a UTV, that is a side by side ATV for those that don't know and a flat bed trailer to haul it on. We can come in at half the weight and as long as I get a trailer with brakes we should be good. Our choice of UTV has been made we are getting a 2006 Yamaha Rhino, it will take care of our off road needs eliminating ware and tear on our tow vehicle. This is what we are getting.

110 volt power from inverter

Today I added a 110 volt outlet on the kitchen cabinets powered by our 1000 watt inverter from our batteries.

Camp chairs

We started with these two chairs with our pop up trailer.

 We then replaced the blue Coleman chair with another one with the foot rest but they are hard to get out of.

When we got the fifth wheel we started using two padded rockers that we got for use outside at home.

Well the padded rockers are comfy but we miss being able to recline so this week end we picked up 2 Zero Gravity Lounges from Cabela's that were originally a Bass Pro Shop item and at $39.77 ea they were a good deal.

 I will let you know how well they do.

Trailer mods

Well I finally got around to installing our new screen door handle and yes ladies in true man fashion the directions stayed in the container, it was a simple install the handle was from Camco.

I also put the slider out so I could get to the entertainment center and mounted a small Cobra 19 Ultra III cb in there above the tv the antenna cable runs up into the cabinet above to the antenna, I still have to wire power to it and set the SWR but it is closer now.

120 Volt kitchen appliances run off 12 Volt inverter

We started looking at some of our smaller 120 volt appliances for use in our trailer without having to use the generator or power at a campground. Now we ave a 4 battery bank that has 464 amps of power, but if you want your batteries to last you should not drain them down past 80%  or in our case about 92 amps which is normally 3 days of use for us.

We had a electric skillet but it pulled 1500 watts which is more then our inverter puts out so no luck there and a older crock pot type set up that had teflon lining that only pulled 300 watts it has been stored for years but the teflon looked bad so in the garbage it went. We have a new Mr Coffee Espresso maker that I had high hopes for since it was only 800 watts We tried it and at the start our batteries were at 98% and we brewed 1 cup with it and they dropped to 96% it pulled a whopping 72 amps and yes our batteries would support that but with daily use it would drain our batteries quicker and we would need to recharge sooner than every 3 days so for now it is out.

We also picked up a new mini food processor from Cuisinart that was a cheap deal at Walmart and it worked out great as it only pulled 7-8 amps so it stays in the trailer.

 We plan on trying a small 3 quart instant pot, dehydrator, a small rice cooker steamer from BB&B and a electric skillet if we can find one that pulls 750-800 watts but even that may be to much. I will post more as I try them.