A couple of years ago my wife and I decided we were going to travel the US in a semi-retired state. We kicked out the kids (all over 21), sold our home and purchased an RV. Well live situations change and we didn’t get on the road, at least not yet. We ended up staying in the area and taking full time jobs. But we decided at the time to stay in the RV as full-timers.
The purpose of the article is to offer some insight as to the possibilities of using RV’s instead of apartments and the advantages of Rving. First a little background for those that are not familiar with the Recreational Vehicle (RV) terms. RVs are classified into several different categories.
Class A are the bus like vehicles you see traveling down the road. These are also called Motorhomes and for good reason. Class A’s are the cream of the crop so to speak. They are the most expensive in terms of cost but have the most storage and amenities. I have seen some really nice Class A’s and when it comes time for us to upgrade or trade in our current RV we will be looking at the Class A again. However, my tastes start in the $250,000 range, which is a little hard for me to justify.
Next are Class B, these are mini motorhomes. They are built on a light to medium truck chassis and can be identified by the truck cab appearance of the vehicle. In my opinion, these will not be suitable for full time use unless you really like small places. Some newer Class Bs are including what are called slides which are sections of the RV that ’slide out’ from the body giving you more living space inside. Living space is what you will be looking for in the long run.
After the Class B comes Fifth Wheels. Fifth Wheels are trailers that are pulled by pickup trucks. So to get a fifth wheel you will also need a pickup truck of appropriate size. I would figure at least a ¾ ton pickup. Fifth wheels offer an advantage over Class A and Class B in that once you have the fifth wheel set up on a campsite, the truck is detached and can be used as a means of transportation. With Class A & B RV’s you will need to either tow or bring another vehicle with you to get around. Fifth wheels approach the Class A RV in amenities and in some cases have more space. Dollar for dollar you will get more living space in a fifth wheel than a Class A.
However, you do need an expensive tow vehicle (truck) which has to be considered as part of the purchase. The fifth wheel is also part of a class considered as ‘Towables’. The next ‘towable’ is the travel trailer (TT). These are similar to the fifth wheel except in the connections to the tow vehicle. With TT you connect to a hitch that sits near the bumper of the vehicle. Hence, just about any vehicle has the capabilities of towing a TT depending on size and weight of course. Class A, Fifth Wheels and Travel Trailers are the 3 main RV that you will find people living in on a fulltime basis. After the TT comes the camper class. These are light weight RV really not suitable for full time, however, I have met people that are full-timers in pop-ups, truck campers and even tents. The top of the line for the camper class is probably the truck campers.
These are units that slide into the bed of a pickup truck. In general, the max length is no more than 12 feet from front to back and maybe 10 feet side to side. They are very compact. These offer the ultimate in freedom, in that they are quick to setup and take down so that you can move quickly from place to place. However, just like the class A & B, your home is also your transportation, unless you bring another vehicle with you. The last group of towables is the popup or tent trailers. These have a study box frame and as the name implies pop up or lift up to raise the roof over the frame. This class of campers usually have soft sides made of cloth. I have used popups for years as an alternative to hotels while on assignments around the country. Even did some camping in the middle of winter with snow on the ground in a popup. Needless to say, a heater was required and it ran all day and all night. At night it wasn’t able to keep up with the cold so the morning was a little fun getting out of bed. It was 20 degrees outside and about 50 inside.
That is a basic overview of the types of RV’s available. As mentioned before, Class A, Fifth wheel and Travel Trailers are the units that most people will find suitable for full-time living.
Our experiences with living full-time in an RV.
We currently have a fifth wheel. Ours is from Jayco and is 38 feet long with 3 slides. One slide is in the bedroom, the other two slides are in the living room one on each side of the trailer. After almost 3 years in the RV as full-timers, we both love it. My wife likes to say it takes less than an hour to clean from front to back, floor to ceiling.
Let’s start with the financial side of living in a RV. You have the cost of the RV. These are to be treated just like cars. If you buy new, you will take a beating on depreciation. However, like a home, the interest is tax deductible. So the best deal seems to be a unit that is a year or two old and financed. If you want to buy new, figure a discount of about 25-30% off from the list price. Our unit was a 2003 still on the lot in 2005 with the 2006 units being delivered. The sticker price was over $65,000. We paid $40,000 saving us about 38 percent. Now at the time we did not have a tow vehicle so the dealer delivered the fifth wheel to a near by campground.
Oak Grove in Hatfield, PA is a year round campground. This is important. You want to find a campground that offers year round operations. You don’t want to have to move out in the wintertime. A lot of camp grounds close from November to March or early April. When we started there our rent was $375 a month and included water and electric. Our only other expense was propane for heating and hot water. Oak Grove supplied 2- 100 lb propane tanks and they automatically changed the tanks for us. This is really nice, kind of like automatic oil delivery when you own a house. During the warmer months we hardly use any propane, maybe a bottle every other month if that. However, wintertime we will use 3-4 bottles a month due to the heater. Currently propane runs about $50 a bottle. So from the standpoint of renting an apartment to living in an RV expenses are normally cheaper. My daughter pays $750 a month for an apartment near us and we pay on average $425-450.
Other benefits of living in a RV – people! The people you find camping are the most wonderful folks you will ever come across. They are friendly, helpful, young at heart and just plain nice to be around. We have been avid campers since before we were married. I used to sneak down to DE where my wife (girlfriend at the time) and her family were camping and pitch a tent, then make myself part of the family. In the almost 40 years we have been together and camping we have never met anyone that was rude, a thief, or not willing to lend a hand if asked. In fact we have had more offers of help without asking than anytime we lived in a house or apartment.
It’s funny, but when I traveled and stayed at hotels, you almost felt like a ghost or leopard or something. Heaven forbid if you said ‘hi’ to someone in the elevator or hallway. But when camping, everyone waves as you walk by, some will offer drinks or have you sit by the fire and chat for hours. Its like we are all family.
Speaking of fires, what is it about a campfire? To sit down at night around a nice campfire is so relaxing. Nothing needs to be said, just watch the flames and it seems all the stress just floats away. But campfires have another benefit, food. Nothing tastes better than food cooked over an open fire. Try doing that in an apartment.
Rving has another benefit, vacations. If you live in an apartment, you vacation consist of going to a destination, finding a hotel/motel, eating out every meal, and taking enough clothes with you for the length of the vacation. When you live in a RV, your home goes with you. 30-40 minutes to pack the RV, disconnect the utilities and hook up to the truck and you are on the road. When you get to your vacation destination, another 30-40 minutes and you are ready to enjoy the sites. Meals are not a problem, you have a complete kitchen already stocked just like at home, since it is home. On a special diet? No problem, you normal routine is uninterrupted. Clothes get dirty, a lot of RV come with washers and dryers, so you can do your laundry while relaxing in the evenings or before you get started for the day. Rving is usually cheaper too. When you compare the expenses you will find the RV trip is a lot cheaper than hotel/restaurant trip.
These are just a few of the things to consider when you look at living in an apartment verse living in a RV. I hope you have found the information useful.
Tags: Apartment, Beginners, DV6700, Entertainment, Living, Saxophone, Saxophones, Turion, Verses
Juice (DVD) The Final Three Electric Interurban Freight Survivors At one time electrified freight interurbans operated throughout the United States. Yet today just three remain in service. Toiling under the wires as if time had passed them by, these survivors depend upon an assortment of antique freight motors to keep them rolling. Pentrex traveled to Wisconsin to record the East Troy Electric, which still pulls freight on an as-needed basis. During 1998 the railroad utilized motor L-9 when it took part in moving fourteen special loads of stainless steel tubing. Next we visit San Antonio where Texas Transportation uses electric freight motors through city streets to serve the Pearl brewery. Then we’re off to Mason City, Iowa to view multiple motors on Iowa Traction. A ride aboard one of their historic freight motors gives us a great view of the motorman at work. Learn why these railroads continue to operate their old freight motors in modern times. If you love traction, you’ll be thrilled by the sight of these antique electrics at work today!
Knee pain or hip pain after crouching or squatting is common in those with tight lower back, hip and knee muscles. Most of us who sit all day long have tight muscles in the lower back and lower limbs. So when we perform crouching or squatting movements whether done in a prolonged fashion or repetitively, you may feel weakness, discomfort or pain in the hips, groins, front of the thighs as well as along the inner aspect of the thighs and perhaps even knee pain. This should tell you that the muscles in these areas were abused by the crouching or squatting positions.
The muscle responsible for discomfort or pain at the front of the thighs or pain in the front of the knees is the rectus femoris muscle and the muscle at the inner aspect of the thigh and knee that has been stressed is the adductor magnus muscle.
If pain is in the outer aspect of the knees, the pain is likely to be from stress to the tensor fascia lata muscle and if pain is at the back of the knees, the pain is from the hamstrings muscles.
Although the other quadriceps muscles are important for producing anterior thigh and knee pain, they are not the main muscles to be injured since the other quadriceps cross only one joint namely the knee joint whereas rectus femoris (which is also a quadriceps muscle), tensor fascia lata and hamstrings cross both the hip and knee joints and are thus more likely to be abused with crouching or squatting.
Initially, anterior thigh and knee pain is more common than posterior thigh pain. Because of our sedentary positions involving sitting for prolonged periods, the muscles in the front of the hip such as rectus femoris, tensor fascia lata and psoas major may be chronically shortened while the muscles in the back of the hip, the gluteus maximus (buttock muscle), hamstrings and adductor magnus are chronically over- stretched and weakened.
At the knee joint, sitting places the knees in a bent position, therefore the rectus femoris and the tensor fascia lata whose functions are to extend the knee are over stretched and weakened whereas the hamstring muscles whose function is to bend the knee become short and tight due to the imbalance of muscle power as in the see-saw principle.
Upon crouching or squatting, the sitting position is exaggerated with excessive hip and knee bending. Therefore, the rectus femoris and tensor fascia lata muscles become shorter and tighter at the hip and more long and stretched out at the knee. Excessive shortening contraction in bending (flexion) at the hip and excessive lengthening contraction in straightening (extension) at the knee injure both rectus femoris and tensor fascia lata muscles.
To maintain the person in a crouched position or squatting position, muscles at the back of the hip have to undergo an excessive lengthening contraction in addition to an excessive shortening contraction at the knee. Since muscles at the back of the hip that have to undergo a lengthening contraction such as the gluteus maximus and adductor magnus are huge and very strong, the hamstring muscles which also does the same action at the hip can now have more concentrated power for bending the knee. The stronger the pull of the hamstring muscles to actively bend the knee, the more power the rectus femoris and tensor fascia lata muscles have to exert to counteract this force.
Therefore, when you try to stand erect after crouching or squatting, the first weakness, discomfort or pain will be felt in the front of the thigh and front of the knee giving rise to thigh pain and knee pain.
© 2007 copyright www.stopmusclepain.com
During the 1990s, Ford Motor Company went on an international buying spree snapping up small automakers around the globe. Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin all were brought within the Ford fold, and Mazda, by default has become part of Ford’s line up even though the Japanese automaker is “only” partly owned by Ford. Ford parts and Mazda parts are sometimes interchangeable as well as are some of their vehicles. Let’s examine closely the relationship between the two automakers and how their synergies benefit both companies.
The relationship between Ford and Mazda has been growing over the years, but is well known by auto historians as having started in the early 1970s when the Mazda pick up truck was imported to the North American market by Ford and called the Courier. From 1972 to 1983, the Courier was part of the Ford line up, but in reality it was a Mazda.
From 1984 on, Ford decided to build its own small pickup truck and the Ranger was born. Mazda, meanwhile, redesigned their truck and sold it separately until 2002. When time came for a new Mazda truck, Mazda tapped Ford and the current Ranger was rebadged as the Mazda “B” series.
From 1991 to 2001 Ford’s Explorer was rebadged and sold as the Mazda Navajo. Only a two door version was available and the line was eventually dropped as Mazda concentrated on their own SUV, namely the Tribute.
Are you confused yet? Don’t be as the two automakers have exchanged parts and vehicles for decades.
In the early part of this decade, Ford, which has a very strong truck division, needed a vehicle that was smaller and less costly than the pricey midsize Explorer to complement the fleet. Enter Mazda. Mazda designed and released the car-like Tribute for their own division, and a Ford version of the SUV, the Escape, was built by Ford in the US. Together, the vehicles have competed successfully against Toyota’s RAV4 and Honda CR-V.
For 2006, the Ford/Mazda relationship really heats up with the release of three cars based on the highly touted Mazda 6 platform: the Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, and the “near luxury” Lincoln Zephyr. All three sedans share similar components and borrow heavily from Ford’s relationship with Mazda.
If you purchase a Ford or Mazda product that has in fact been rebadged will the Ford parts and the Mazda parts be the same? Good question! Major sections like the frame are likely to be the same, but many key components including suspension parts, brakes, and electrical parts, may be different. A better thing to do when purchasing replacement Ford or Mazda parts is to check your vehicle’s owners manual or visit a reputable online store, such as Car Parts Stuff, for the right parts for your make and model. You may think you are getting the same parts, but you can only be certain if you verify that information.
Ford and Mazda have a relationship that appears to be mutually beneficial to the two automakers. Judging by the new products being offered, the relationship is certain to grow stronger in the coming years.
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Tags: International, Mazda, Relationship, Strong
Particularly for large metropolitan cities, smog and poor air quality is a pressing environmental problem. Smog primarily consists of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds chemically interacting with heat from sunlight forming ground level ozone. Smog is that familiar haze most commonly found surrounding large cities, particularly in the summer time. Smog and ground level ozone contribute to all kinds of respiratory problems ranging from temporary discomfort, asthma, to long-lasting, permanent lung damage. The pollutants in smog come from vehicle emissions, smokestack emissions, paints, and solvents – most of which started out as crude oil.
Much of the eastern United States is affected by another environmental problem known as acid rain. Acid rain can damage crops, forests, wildlife populations, and cause respiratory and other illnesses in humans. When sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react with water vapor and other chemicals in the presence of sunlight, various acidic compounds form in the air and come to the earth as acid rain. The pollutants of acid rain are derived from coal fired power plants. Natural gas emits virtually no sulfur dioxide and up to 80 percent less nitrogen oxides than the combustion of coal. So the increased use of natural gas would provide for fewer acid rain causing emissions.
The source of energy to use for reducing pollution and maintaining a clean and healthy environment is natural gas. Natural gas is also domestically abundant making it a secure source of energy. The environmental benefits of using natural gas over other sources of energy, particularly other fossil fuels are numerous.
Since the use of natural gas emits only low levels of nitrogen oxides and virtually no particulate matter, it can be used to help combat smog formation in those areas where ground level air quality is poor. Electric utilities, motor vehicles, and industrial plants make up the main sources of nitrogen oxides. To combat smog production, especially in urban centers where it is needed the most, increased natural gas use in the electric generation sector, a shift to cleaner natural gas vehicles, and increased industrial natural gas use could all serve to improving the air quality. Summertime, when natural gas demand is at its lowest and smog problems are the greatest, would be a good time for industrial plants and electric generators to use natural gas to fuel their operations instead of using the more polluting fossil fuels. This would effectively reduce smog emissions resulting in clearer, healthier air around the urban centers.
A study conducted in 1995 by the Coalition for Gas-Based Environmental Solutions found that in the Northeast, smog and ozone-causing emissions could be reduced by 50 to 70 percent through the seasonal switching to natural gas.
Particulate emissions such as soot, ash, metals, and other airborne particles also cause the degradation of air quality in the United States. Natural gas emits virtually no particulates into the atmosphere. Emissions of particulates from natural gas combustion are 90 percent lower than from the combustion of oil, and 99 percent lower than burning coal. Increased natural gas use in place of other dirtier hydrocarbons can help to reduce particulate emissions in the United States.
Companies like Triple Diamond Energy Corporation are concerned about the levels of smog and acid rain. They look at increasing their supply of the more environmentally beneficial natural gas and to make it more accessible to the northeastern part of the United States.
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