Sleeping in my car in SD? (motorhomes, purchasing, price)

[teddyearp]

peasantgirl: it is good you switched from Sprint to Verizon, now you'll get even better coverage. I have been on VZW for over 10 years and have used my cell phones to connect laptops, etc to the internet for about 8 years. The phone is connecting to data dervices anyway, if you are just checking emails and such, it won't 'flag' your account.

Doing so just depends on what kind of phone you have. For alot of the smatphone varieties, go here:

June Fabrics PDA Technology Group

good luck

[otterprods]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

Camping is awesome. We spend a great deal of time in our medium sized TT camping around the County. When I'm not in that I'm tent camping in the sticks. Sometimes even just a sleeping bag on the dirt we get so far back in there. TT is nice and it's pretty much a nice house on wheels. in door/out door shower, genset, microwave, stove, oven, tv/dvd, freezer/fridge, propane or electric heat, AC unit, two hundred gallons of fresh water, toilet, bathroom with mirrors and cabinets, slide outs with big sleeping room, dinette. What's not to like.

When I was in my teens, 20's and 30's, all I ever needed was a small backpack, ridge-rest and sleeping bag. The openly time I ever even used the tent was int he winter or in a rain storm. I found it quite comfortable and it allowed me to go wherever I wanted, far from any roads or people. I would see car-campers and think, 'shoes, what sissies… they're missing the good stuff'. And RV'ers were outright noxious to me… I had real disdain for them and figured they were all rich, lazy old drunks whou should be outlawed.

No that I'm well into my 40's with two young children and have not backpacked in nearly 10 years, I have become a RV-owner (Bag-o-wino's is the word-scrambe we used to use to describe them) myself and totally understand the appeal, and even the necessity of it, at a certain point. Ours is a relatively small (23') class C, which I bought for a song and put to good use. It's well worth any maintenance and other expense each year, although I do wish we could use it even more. We will, no doubt, as the kids get older. Someday I may upgrade to something newer and possibly even larger. But I'd actually rather go smaller in length (closer to 20') but with pullouts to get more sq footage than I have now. There are lots of options and new innovations that still appear regularly. The only limit is budget.

I can't say that I really miss my old backpacking ways, although I'm glad I gained that knowledge and experience. I will take my kids out some as they get older, but other than that, it's mostly rv-ing for me now. I will say to peasant-girl, and any other prospective RV-ers, that it's best to keep it simple… no need for a 40 footer towing a full size suv and a boat (which I've seen). Get by without a toad if you can, and keep it all as compact and minimalist as you can in any case. But for living, things like an oven, a shower, and most of all, a refrigerator are not just luxuries, they're really necessities if you want to have any semblance of a normal life at all. So you need to strike a balance that's right for you.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by otterprods

When I was in my teens, 20's and 30's, all I ever needed was a small backpack, ridge-rest and sleeping bag. The openly time I ever even used the tent was int he winter or in a rain storm. I found it quite comfortable and it allowed me to go wherever I wanted, far from any roads or people. I would see car-campers and think, 'shoes, what sissies… they're missing the good stuff'. And RV'ers were outright noxious to me… I had real disdain for them and figured they were all rich, lazy old drunks whou should be outlawed.

No that I'm well into my 40's with two young children and have not backpacked in nearly 10 years, I have become a RV-owner (Bag-o-wino's is the word-scrambe we used to use to describe them) myself and totally understand the appeal, and even the necessity of it, at a certain point. Ours is a relatively small (23') class C, which I bought for a song and put to good use. It's well worth any maintenance and other expense each year, although I do wish we could use it even more. We will, no doubt, as the kids get older. Someday I may upgrade to something newer and possibly even larger. But I'd actually rather go smaller in length (closer to 20') but with pullouts to get more sq footage than I have now. There are lots of options and new innovations that still appear regularly. The only limit is budget.

I can't say that I really miss my old backpacking ways, although I'm glad I gained that knowledge and experience. I will take my kids out some as they get older, but other than that, it's mostly rv-ing for me now. I will say to peasant-girl, and any other prospective RV-ers, that it's best to keep it simple… no need for a 40 footer towing a full size suv and a boat (which I've seen). Get by without a toad if you can, and keep it all as compact and minimalist as you can in any case. But for living, things like an oven, a shower, and most of all, a refrigerator are not just luxuries, they're really necessities if you want to have any semblance of a normal life at all. So you need to strike a balance that's right for you.

I can't get the Mrs. back into the tent after the TT. The kids will go hunting with me so tenting it with them is no problem but the wife, eh not so much One thing I would like to add to my tent arsenal is a deep cycle battery, solar cell and a small genset. Ice is one thing you can't do without if you have meats or (cough) beer You can get an ice maker pretty cheap and run it while you recharge the battery using minimal fuel. Where I tent it would be a 40 mile round trip to get ice.

[oddstray]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

I can't get the Mrs. back into the tent after the TT. The kids will go hunting with me so tenting it with them is no problem but the wife, eh not so much One thing I would like to add to my tent arsenal is a deep cycle battery, solar cell and a small genset. Ice is one thing you can't do without if you have meats or (cough) beer You can get an ice maker pretty cheap and run it while you recharge the battery using minimal fuel. Where I tent it would be a 40 mile round trip to get ice.

We have a 12-volt chiller that stays cold quite nicely with a 300W solar panel. We put the chiller inside a tent during the day, to get it out of the sun.

[ready to roll]

Back in the 80's we lived in my pick-up with a camper shell for a couple years and parked in different locations from San Diego bay all the way to Santee. Also stayed in campgrounds alot. The police ran us off a couple times when I was parked on the street.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by oddstray

We have a 12-volt chiller that stays cold quite nicely with a 300W solar panel. We put the chiller inside a tent during the day, to get it out of the sun.

What temp will that go down to?

[oddstray]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

What temp will that go down to?

DH says, as far as he recalls it'll go to 25 degrees below ambient (we were camping at Joshua Tree, and it was a pretty chilly weekend). But I think he's had it cooler than that, when he was testing it at home.

[skeke]

My ex-husband was a big back packer, no tent, just walking off in to the wilderness, bathing in natural waters and digging a hole for a latrine. In his sixties now he generally goes horseback. He just did a lengthy horse ride through Mongolia. He said many days went by that they saw no paved roads much less toilets.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by oddstray

DH says, as far as he recalls it'll go to 25 degrees below ambient (we were camping at Joshua Tree, and it was a pretty chilly weekend). But I think he's had it cooler than that, when he was testing it at home.

Interesting. On a 100 degree day would it still work? I know my ice maker doesn't like to work over 100 degrees even in the shade, ironically, when we need it most.

[oddstray]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

Interesting. On a 100 degree day would it still work? I know my ice maker doesn't like to work over 100 degrees even in the shade, ironically, when we need it most.

Probably wouldn't work very well. A 'fridge' at 75 degrees isn't very useful. We haven't had it long enough to try it on 100 degree days. And we wouldn't be likely to be out in 100 degrees, so we'll probably never find out.