ERA thoughts
I'm at a turning point in my life and basically got a do-over that I don't want to take for granted. I pick up my 2017 ERA on the 2nd of December. I am going to be living in it full time. The RV world is new to me and I'm scared to death but I think I should be. I don't have any delusions that it will be an easy life. However, it should at least be interesting. I'm going to give it a solid year. If it suits me, I'll most likely start looking at a Boldt or Revel as they seem more suited to full time living. I could be way off here. I know to keep interior moisture to a minimum. I don't know if I need to do anything to keep it from freezing. I don't have a plan as to where I'm headed yet. I know I don't want to pay to park and sleep somewhere every night. I guess I'm here to try and learn some tips and tricks for my ERA. And advice from other owners on what to expect. Thanks!
We have a 2016 ERA 170A that we bought when it was 2 years old with just under 10K miles. We take it on trips several times a year but don't live in it full-time.
I'm curious what leads you to think the Boldt or Revel would be better for full-time RVing? The Boldt seems pretty similar to the ERA and the Revel is really small, to our mind way too small to consider living in. But to each their own...
Here's an interesting thread with issues I and other Era owners have encountered.
https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/f264/buying-2019-era-70x-361312.html
I also posted several threads over the past year or so with issues I encountered. Do a search for threads I started. In addition to the info I posted there were a lot of good follow-ups from other forum members.
This particular thread has a lot of information you may find useful.
https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/f61/new-member-2015-era-70c-361663.html
Before we bought our ERA we read a lot of threads and watched a number of YouTube videos regarding RV water leaks and mold (none of which were in reference to the ERA, just RVs in general). We decided to NOT use the shower in the ERA to avoid this problem, instead opting to stay in a campground every 3 to 5 days to shower. We do get a bit aromatic in the interim.
On our initial trip in the ERA we ran into a guy that had just bought the AirStream version (don't recall what they call that model) and was living in it full-time, working in some sort of IT role remotely. His external antenna caught my eye and I found out it was part of his Wi-Fi extender setup so he could use Wi-Fi from places like Starbucks, McDonalds, etc. One thing to note is that if you connect to many free Wi-Fi networks (for example, Lowes, McDonalds, etc.) they often configure the IP address lease time for 30 or 60 minutes, so you may have to reconnect periodically (I think ours does automatically, but we usually aren't connected long enough for it to be an issue).
Best of luck with your ERA and RV living.
