[trackbird]

My wife and I have been camping in a camper we got from her dad earlier this year (I grew up with campers and motor homes, but she hasn't done much camping) and having fun, so we bought a new Winnebago Voyage 2831RB. We love the floor plan and the space, but my truck wishes it was a little lighter. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) The Silverado actually tows it just fine (32' overall, 11.5' tall, 7460 lbs empty), but it doesn't like to run above about 68 mph, or it will start trying to use 3rd gear more often (at like 4k rpm) when we hit a slight grade, etc. The 190 watt solar panel and regulator kit will be here in the next week or so and I'm finding that this may cost more than building cars (once you buy all the stuff you want to go with it). Now I have to sort out why the rear view camera I purchased won't stay paired to the monitor (the camper is pre wired for this particular camera, I set it up and then when we got in the truck it wouldn't work, I have to see if the camera is bad or the wiring in the camper).

I got the car to two autocrosses this year. Otherwise, I only ran about one tank of fuel through it. I'm starting to think I should just sell it, but it was absolutely delightful on the autocross course and I just can't let it go. I'm finding that I'm spending nice nights out camping instead of driving back roads with the top down. I did put new tires on the car this year (street tires) and I think they have 50 miles on them. lol.

Here's the one we bought. This is a combination of dealer photos and stock photos. It's generally correct, but I think one or two pics came off the winnebago site.

https://www.markwahlbergrv.com/New-Inventor...041676?ref=list

Mark Wahlberg RV is right down the road from me.

[trackbird]

Due to freezing temps, we had to cancel our last weekend of camping and winterize the camper. I blew out all of the lines when I tore things down at the last camp site (just in case temps went down in a hurry). So I just had to dump RV antifreeze into the fresh water tank and use the water pump to pump it through all of the lines. I poured in 9 gallons to start and I bypassed the hot water heater (this camper has a hot water tank bypass, though they don't ever tell you that). I never got a good flow out of the bathroom sink. So I went back the next day and put 5 more gallons into the tank and pumped it through all the faucets, the shower, the low point drain and the external shower (careful not to miss anything). We also learned that the fresh water tank drain is a "pull handle" like the gray and black tanks. It dumps water out of a 2.25" hole in the bottom. I expected the typical 1/2" plastic hose with a small valve on the bottom (that takes 3.6 years to drain). I kept looking and I wasn't finding the drain. My father in law rolled under the camper and said "there's a gray handle here", he pulled it and rolled out in a hurry as water started draining at a very rapid rate. It's actually a brilliant idea for a drain. It really flows a lot of water and will drain the tank quickly (the last camper, we just opened the valve and started for home. It usually sloshed all the fresh water out along the route and was mostly empty by the time we parked). So, that's a nice touch.

I also ordered a 3 zone Furrion DVD/entertainment system to replace the Jensen system that came with the camper. I'm going to experiment with it using a 10 amp variable power supply I have here at the house and see what I think before I install it. I don't think it can be any worse than the Jensen, but I'll know more soon.