Learning to live small(er)...again

When we first went on the road full time in 2012, our trip across country to pick up our new trailer at New Horizons looked a little Beverly Hillbillyish.

This time around, we made it easy by moving our belongings from our New Horizons 5th wheel and into a UHaul trailer. After a full day RV bootcamp for the new owner of our 5th wheel, we were off to Indiana where Kingdom Camping and our new caravan were waiting.

A big mistake people make when buying a new RV is showing up, grabbing the keys, hooking up and heading straight out for home or a campsite. The excitement is too much and they want to immediately hit the road (or they only have  limited time off from work). When we moved into our New Horizons 5th wheel eleven years ago, we spent two weeks at the factory working out all the kinks. Even a $200k trailer can have a lot of kinks.

So when we showed up at Kingdom Camping to pick up our new trailer, we had already planned on spending five to seven days with owner Jamin Lambright and his team. On our list was to touch, use and see every inch of the trailer and its systems (inside and out) before heading for home. After all, why wait until you get home to fix/upgrade items when you have all the resources of the manufacturer available to you? In return, our MO is to take full responsibility for all fixes and upgrades after we leave with the trailer. Unless we have a major structural issue in the future, we don't expect much from the manufacturer once we take delivery.

Fortunately, all of the items under direct control of Kingdom Camping were done to perfection. All of the walls, floor, and roof were perfect. The interior finishes didn't have any strange wrinkles or untidy corners. We actually couldn't find any imperfections. The plumbing fittings were high quality, tight and well laid out. The electrical system is run neatly and correctly. All of the welds and finishes on the frame and metal trims were neat and defect-free. All of the systems provided by manufacturers outside of Kingdom Camping will fail at some point during the next ten years. At various points over the next decade, we'll probably be dealing with Dometic, Truma, Victron, Shurflo, Cruisemaster, etc., but we expect the frame and box built by Kingdom to outlive us. Building a new house with such a small punchlist upon completion is unusual. Finding a new RV with little or nothing to improve upon is almost unheard of.

The ability for two people to safely walk around anywhere on the roof is also unusual. The only space on top not covered by solar panels are two small areas on either side of the 12V AC unit. We had to leave some roof space available for future maintenance. We still managed to fit 2,020 watts of rack mounted solar panels up there.

From Amish carriage to Off-road trailer, both need "horsepower" to move :-)

Trying as hard as we could, this is all we could find to improve upon: 

• Re-wiring the on/off lights on six push button switches.
• Adding a shelf here and there.
• Replacing a faulty propane detector.
• Upgrading a few 12v and in line fuses.
• Fine tuning and programming some systems that are new to us (Truma Combi Plus, Victron, Separett toilet, airbag compressor system).
• Replacing a small TV monitor with a small smart TV.
• Adding a small heavy duty entry handrail.
• Adding a small compartment door latch and entry door bumper.
• A little interior caulk spot touch up here and there.

This may seem like a long list, but if you've ever owned an RV, you know these are some of the things you do routinely. Jamin and his team handled all of these fixes as we discovered them over two days and while we were moving into the trailer at the same time. Surprisingly, Jamin told us we are his first customer to actually stay a few days to make sure all systems are go. He would like to see more customers do that in the future.

OK, some interiors taken by Jamin:

We have some nasty weather coming in and some long miles to do to get back to Idaho. We'll have more photos and details once the sunlight is cooperating and we've had time to get organized again.

A Trailer for Our Next Chapter - Part VIII: Let's pick this thing up already!

We are getting close enough to taste and smell this thing. Ten days and 2,000 miles from today we will be backing our little UHaul trailer up to our new home on wheels and starting to transfer our belongings. The roof has been coated for no maintenance and long term durability, and the solar panel roof rack and panels are ready to be mounted.

The front storage box and rock guard are ready for business. The front storage box is strong enough for us to climb on top of it as needed for maintenance. You can also see the driver side fender is ready to be welded on. This will also be strong enough to use as a step to reach higher for maintenance.

We've run the side cladding up a little higher to minimize the boondocking pinstripes we pick up on occasion.

The compartment for the Nautilus water management system and Cruisemaster ATX suspension are conveniently located. We made sure all of our compartment doors are extra thick and have higher quality latches and weather stripping. This helps in cold weather protection and in keeping dust away from the system components.

Here's a good angle on the large laundry hamper and storage compartment in the space between the bathroom contertop and the shower. The shower, bathroom sink, and kitchen plumbing never run in an exterior wall or unheated compartment. There will be no plumbing freeze issues in this trailer.

Here's a good view of the solid surface flip up bar table that runs the length of the trailer across from the kitchen. It can be stored in a down position to give us a little more walking around room if wanted.

At 18"x18", the undermount sink isn't the largest but is still plenty big for us. We're more interested in having ample counterspace.

We're really looking forward to the big beautiful memory foam and gel queen size bed we ordered for this trailer. High end trailers have become so expensive, and it boggles my mind that it's so rare to be able to order your own mattress during the specification phase of the purchase. Being able to walk around the sides is priceless. Anyone who lives full time in their RV knows you don't want to skimp on the mattress or the ability to maneuver around it! 

Imagine that. A bed platform with struts strong enough to hold up the weight of a heavy, high quality mattress.

Nice clean battery mounting under the bed. Bus bars and heavy gauge wire passing right through the bulkhead to the inverter mounted on the other side in the pass through basement. There's also plenty of room left over to easily store our Starlink equipment when traveling (with room to spare).

The passthrough basement houses all of the solar/electrical components neatly and safely. We also have a solid residential breaker box. After living with basement doors that folded up to be secured, and having them come loose and hit us on the head more than once, it will be nice to have compartment doors that fold down. They can be used as little tables and can be disconnected and folded all the way down for easy basement access. 

View from the other side of the basement.

We'll soon have a lot more to share including photos of the trailer out in the world.