Excited and Anxiety! 2004 Winnebago Journey

[jefflbi]

Hello,
I am recently retired from the IT world. A little more than a yr ago I bought my 2004 39ft Winnebago Journey, planning on using it to check out potential retirement locations and to see the country. I have not gone a single trip as of yet. I had to trade in my Honda Pilot for a GMC Yukon since the Pilot was not flat towable. My Yukon does have that 2 speed transfer case that I can put into neutral. I need a large SUV because I also have dogs, and I'm aware that most RV parks have a policy of not allowing dogs being left alone inside an RV unattended. Once I found my Yukon I realized I had to have it modified, which turned into a 6 month process. The person doing the work was doing it on his spare time, and there were weekends that I needed it, and then there were parts that needed to be ordered that did not come with the towing package that I decided to go with.

I have no problem driving the RV and I have been taking it on drives just to get used to turning, braking etc.......... even my girlfriend can drive it and back it into our driveway! I will admit to having some anxiety about towing the Yukon. The whole modification thing has not gone as smoothly as I had hoped and it's one of the reasons I found this forum. I made another thread with an issue I'm currently trying to resolve...............

Anyway I am currently living in New Jersey, having sold my house on LBI just shy of 2 yrs ago. But I realize I cannot stay in Jersey for the remainder of my life. So right now I have my sights on one of the mid Atlantic states, like eastern TN. I'm done with the ocean, having lived close to it for most of my life. I'm ready for the mountain life with a few acres for some privacy.........

Right now my plan is to do a few local break-in camping trips, just to make sure everything works and I can find a routine. But by this summer I would like to be taking longer trips in search of my goal...........

[Morich]

So we meet again! I just responded to your other question as more along my line of interest.
So what part of the IT world were you in? Were you more in the coding planning line or more involved with the physical items of IT. I'm not sure what defines the IT world so looking for a bit of info on where you r experiance lies.
Not that there is fault with either place we wind up on experience but if you've dealt with the electrical ends on the job, it often helps see what needs done to fix the electrical on RV.
I did telco way back and much of what we do on RV is just along the same lines but with less info than I had on plans and drawings of the equipment I worked.
Kind of like an Easter egg hunt but I used to get paperwork showing where the eggs were suposed to be. With the RV that is sometimes left for us to figure out from scratch!!

Welcome and hope we can make it go a bit easier. One word of causion might be to watch the batteries and try not to let them go too flat to the point of damage. Being two set, coach and chassis, it may not always be clear where and how they get charged when storing and there ARE some drains on each which can sneak up to drain them if we are not careful.
Things like safety items (CO and propane detectors) on coach and radio or ignition on the chassis side are still often left on even when we turn the battery disconnects off.
That makes it sneak up on us during storage. HEADSUP?

I always liked that SE corner of Tenn. but never really got around to spending much time there. Just looked good on paper!!!

[jefflbi]

Hello Monica!
I was a contractor for the FAA working at a testing and development facility not far from Atlantic City. I started out as a Helpdesk tech, then moved to a position supporting one of the FAA systems. I was more of a hardware person. Installing servers, switches, routers, making and running ethernet cabling etc......

The first thing I did after purchasing my RV was to put new tires all the way around, to the tune of $4k, and just last week I replaced all 5 batteries to the tune of $700. The engine batteries were 12½ yrs old!!!

Another thing I did was install a 50 amp service at the place where I'm living, so the RV stays in the driveway and gets plugged into shore power. Also, I have a battery maintainer connected to the engine batteries to keep them at full power........

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by jefflbi

I need a large SUV because I also have dogs, and I'm aware that most RV parks have a policy of not allowing dogs being left alone inside an RV unattended.

About that "Campground Rule" - yeah, that's not really a thing unless your dogs will bark at everyone and everything that passes by.

No one cares about dogs that are quiet - but conversely no one wants to hear dogs barking with no one around to stop them from barking.

Everyone leaves their dogs alone in the RV sometime... until they are told by their neighbors that their dog has been barking for 3 hours.

I had this happen on my last trip. The dog in the RV next to us barked for 4 hours straight. The next day as the guy was breaking camp to leave I told him that it wasn't a complaint but that he should be aware his dog barks when he's gone. He was very nice, apologetic and said he was glad to know because it was news to him.