SeaDawg

We still use wifi calling in some places. My Verizon phone, for example, won't work in many places. But, if I wifi call from a restaurant or information center, anywhere in the world, I can use something like justalk app and not only talk to my daughter, but see her smiling face. For free. If I have enough wifi signal ... A caveat is, some phones, especially budget priced smart phones, don't accommodate wifi calling. I tried to set it up on a cousin's phone for her. Not possible. The phone and carrier have to support it. Sherry

Yes, for over ten years, we've hedged our bets by carrying cell phones from two carriers, Verizon and TMobile. ( One cdma, one gsm). This has worked pretty well for us, as usually, if there is a signal to be found, one of us has signal... No matter what country we are in. In Europe, Australia, and Canada, Paul's TMobile works better. In most of the us, I get better chance at signal on Verizon. We tested the same Wilson WeBoost that Oliver currently installs. It boosted my Verizon signal by a bar or two. Nada with TMobile at our mountain camping property, because there is nothing to boost. 0 x 20 is still zero... But, that bar or two with either service can be the difference in being able to make a call, or just receive a text... I found the Wilson booster to be easy to use. And Oliver's installed price is pretty reasonable, considering its shelf price, uninstalled. Sherry

Depending on your language skills, you may find it helpful to download French to offline translation on google translate app. We made do with a phrase book, dictionary, and a lot of good will. We had a flat tire on the truck in a French town on the Gaspe. A nice young man with limited english skills, (but better than my French skills,) directed us back 10 miles or so to a great tire shop in an "English" town. The further you get from Montreal and Quebec City, the less likely you will be to find bilingual capabilities , in the small French towns and villages. But, we felt very welcome everywhere, and we always managed to get what we needed/wanted. It's part of the adventure... Do stop at some of the local cheese shops and creameries. Yum. Sherry

Btw, shopping for groceries is way better at the Whitehorse Canadian Superstore, anyway...

Yes, the Washington casinos can be nice. We stayed at one a few years ago. We don't stay at RV parks, if we have the choice. Just an example, lake lebarge yukon territory campground outside Whitehorse by 15 miles or so, 20 or 30 minutes, is $12 cad, $10 us, decent sites, some lakefront, and free firewood.... Just saying. We also have enjoyed free Walmart overnight on travel from point a to b. Recently, outside Kansas City,ks. It really got out of hand at White horse. People don't move on, as they should.. Sherry

http://www.liveworkdream.com/2018/07/23/walmart-free-camping-spot/ Probably about time. The whole process was so abused. Far too many RVs vs shoppers. And why? At least three beautiful yt parks within fifty miles... Last few times, we were appalled at the number of RVs, obviously bmany staying far more than the one free night... Sherry

If you can make it, Drummondville has their version of the poutine festival August 23 through 25. You're too late for many of the local music and poutine fests. ... Including the Montreal fest in the old harbor next weekend. That one has free entry, for anyone nearby...go enjpy. Gotta love poutine... If you miss the festival, you'll see it on the menu about everywhere in Quebec, even the little roadside stands... Poutine fest drummondville 2018 Sherry

I didnt want to leave anyone with the impression that the weboost doesnt work. It does. It boosted my verizon signal by one to two bars. On our camping property in nc, i was looking for a boost to tmobile. Wilson/ weboost can't boost zero, which is what i have in tmobile signal there. Thats why i posted the above field test link. Wilson is highly respected. And very effective bidierectional booster. Just doesn't work for me in my back in the woods mountain space in nc. We drove the weboost around the acreage. Interestingly, i got the best signals in a hollow... One att tower showed up, which i didnt expect. But, couldnt connect to... I would have expected better signal high, but it was worse. All depends on available towers in line of sight, i guess. Sherry

Thanks, Overland. When tne installer did a preliminary study on our home, he laid out the panels for best sun, averaging season. We are still zero electric bill on the house, with surplus, four years later. We undersized the system, but apparently kept everything quite efficient in operations. But, our house doesnt move. We find travel camping, with reasonable sun, we are fully charged any day on the road. 200 watts of 10 year old panels, 210 amp hours of storage. We have our problems when we stay put. In the shade... Our recent addition of a portable 100 watt panel makes a huge difference.enjoy the cool shade in the trailer. Move the panel. Also easier to adjust the angle of the portable panels, than climbing up to adjust our trailer mounted panels. Btw, do you have 400 ah storage in your lithium batteries. Im jealous..... Sherry

Most camping world facilities are dometic service centers. Call the closest one and check. We had good experiences with camping world new port richey on our old dometic fridge. they handled everything under warranty, with no cost to us. A capacitor is easy and quick. Hope, for you, thats all it is. Sherry

Sometime in the last few months, we started receiving the new Chevy magazine, "New Roads." In issue 11, there is a great interview with a former head of truck engineering, now aged 101, entitled "Truck Tales." Mary Barra, the new ceo, phones in with a few questions. For those of us who drove Chevys in the sixties and seventies, its fun and nostalgic.... Interview with former truck engineer There's also a good basic article on towing, "Trailering 101." I see that Chevy now supports a rearview trailer camera on its own screen... Nice. Do other manufacturers offer that option? Haven't looked lately.... Sherry

Davids, You have a real knack for explaining technical procedures in layman's terms. Thanks, once again. Sherry

Mingy, I don't have the answer to your question, as our trailer is ten years old, and many things have upgraded and changed. You might want to direct that question to your sales rep. But, I'd like to give you a warm welcome to the forum! Sherry

I know you've already completed your spring trip, but this came up in my feed this morning. I thought I would add it to the thread for future reference for all. We haven't camped in any of these spots, but they're all free. 5 free camping spots in South Dakota

Last month, we had four people camping with us on our mountain property. I was the only one with a working Verizon phone. Att and tmobile got consistent "no Signal" messages, unless we drove a mile and a half down the road.. As an experiment, we picked up a wilson weboost. The guy at bestbuy told me it would only work if there was at least a small signal, but we could return it in 15 days if it didnt work. Well, long story short, with the booster, i showed 4 bars on the tmobile phone and tablet, but got an error signal of no network. The booster picked up a tower, but not one that my tmobile devices could share, apparently. (Because we experience this issue a lot as we travel, paul and I have one each tmobile and verizon phones and tablets... ) I found this field test info on the wilson site. It explains how to check for towers and strength. What i discovered was what I've known for ten years, at our mountain proprrty. The verizon tower near us has great signal. US Cellular comes in also. Tmobile and att cant sign onto these towers. Back to square one, and the booster goes back... My tmobile devices listed all towers and strength. My verizon devices greyed out the capability to see other towers than verizon, interestingly. All devices were recent android. Heres the link to the field test. Maybe it will help you. Its very easy with android. A little typing with apple... Field test Sherry

Steve, they're " honoring" and relaunching a version of the holiday house. Not the fiberglass version, no. I'm still hoping to see the aluminum version, if they show it in Tampa. I doubt anyone could afford to create the molds for a fiberglass redo of the holiday house.... For the limited appeal and market. A link to the new redo of the aluminum version... The interior looks nothing like the beautifully redone classic originally posted. Sigh. Sherry

"Honoring" the history, the Holiday House is being re- launched... http://www.rvbusiness.com/2017/08/intech-lucas-resurrecting-holiday-house-rv/ I hope that they will display it at the RV supershow in January in Tampa. Sherry

Overland, I think it was around 85 in the trailer when I turned on the fridge. I also had the door open quite a bit as I stocked it at the same time it was cooling down. if I could have stocked it with only cold items, I think that would have made a difference, too. Chilling a bottle of wine and a dozen beers undoubtedly added to the time it took to drop to 40. I also found later that the bottom of the fridge door wasn't sealing tight unless I pushed in on the corner. There's a metal guide that seems to need adjustment. I managed to break a tempered glass shelf in the fridge on our last Alaska trip in the RV. It made a huge mess. That's the first time it's ever happened to me, but it's made me gun-shy. I'm interested in seeing how the fridge performs next trip. It's all different from the old three way, but I'm quite happy so far. Sherry

Well, I promised some updates after we actually got to use the truck fridge. Overall, we're very happy after two weeks and some days with only solar and generator. It has taken some monitoring and getting used to. The first day, from warm to cold, took about 8 hours to cool. I'd have done better to put some ice blocks or cold material in. The extra run time cost an extra 20 amp hours of battery power. Or, of course, cool it at home before leaving, but, I wanted the warm startup test. Most days, the fridge used between 40 and 50 amp hours. When it runs, it uses 3.5 ah. Most often, it runs 12 to 13 minutes, with a 20 to 25 minutes rest. I found it ran better ( less run time) with a couple ice packs in the otherwise empty freezer. Parked in dense shade, the trailer was nice and cool, but we didn't generate more than 1 to 1.8 ah in power to compensate for the new fridge with our 200 watts of rooftop solar. The first week, we ran the Honda 1000 to make up. After that, we mostly used a portable 100 watt panel that we moved around in the spots of sun. For people who plug in most of the time, the change would not be noticed. For us, it's a new learning curve on solar management, as we don't usually plug in, and have no power on our NC camping property. In the sun, we'd be fine. Preference is to live in shade, so adding a portable panel and Port will work well for us. Overall, I really like the fridge. Pretty even temps all around. the fixed door shelves took s little getting used to. I removed the glass shelf above the produce drawer before we left home. A disaster waiting to happen. I was going to cut a plexi shelf, but I'm happy just moving one of the wire shelves down. This fridge had a flip up on the top rack to allow for tall items... But not really designed for a full gallon of milk. I can live with that. A quart or half gallon is plenty for a week or two, anyway. The freezer is small. It does make ice in a few hours. A couple trays, and a few bags of veggies would probably fill it, though. At camp, we left the original vents open, with screening behind them. Average daytime temp was a high of 86, night lows in the 60s. one (very welcome) night the low was in the 50s. I played a bit with the temp control and two thermometers. It didn't make a big difference in temp turning down the fridge from 7 to 6. Just cut the run time frequency. I really like the big drawer in the bottom of the fridge for produce, and water bottles. Organization is different than the old dometic, but better for me as far as access. Randy brought up s good point about the door swing. Our fridge, I think, only can swing right. Which is good for me. We cook outside 96 per cent of the time. Right swing is easier for loading groceries dumped by the door, accessing beverages during the day, and just as easy as the old left to take stuff out and stack on the small dinette table to prep for outdoor cooking. With the left swing, I had to move everything beyond the door for loading. Sherry

We drove the Gaspe peninsula from North to south. Keeps you mostly on the inside lane. Views are spectacular! The one campground I remember well is Camping Griffon near Forillon national park. Very nice people. Bilingual. Reasonable price. We watched whales from our campsite. At Perce, we stayed at Camping Cote Surprise. Small sites, pricey, but everything is pricey in Perce. Again, amazing views of the pierced Rock. It was late season, so a number of places (including many state/national park campgrounds) were closed or limited services. Sherry

Raspy, thanks for the catch. I just looked up the generator my sister bought at Costco. Indeed, it's powered by Yamaha, not made by Yamaha. Certainly explains the price difference. I will say it was pretty quiet. Not as quiet as our Honda, but white reasonable. Sherry

Actually, that's what I was thinking. If they camp mostly in shoulder season, no ac required, I think that she'd be better off with a second generator and the supplied cable kit. I think the run time power on the Yamaha 2000i is only 1600 watts... Peak 2000. The 2000 is gracious plenty to charge batteries and run a small microwave or coffee maker. None of which we do, other than charge batteries when we have no sun... My memory tells me Honda will hold peak for a longer time... Could be wrong. Sherry

So, has anyone here successfully run a 13000 btu ac with easy start on a Yamaha 2000i? Asking because my sister spent last week boondocking with us in the mountains. They have a new 2000i (Costco, $499). It would start the ac, but tripped out in a minute or so. Installing the easy start is almost the price of a second Yamaha 2000i. They come with cable kit... Sherry

As for Bornfree, it was a really nice class c. My company used one for copier demos back in the day. Early 80 s. Sadly, they're not in business. There are many choices. First, you have to narrow the field. Trailer, van, class c.... It's daunting. We know. Good luck in your search. I can only comment based on my old school, 2008, now working on 11 years old.... I'm happy. But our camping styles could be vastly different... Sherry.

You're not hijacking, at all. I hope others will also add comments and photos on their favorites.? Sherry