Updated July 3, 2007
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Welcome to our website. We are Jack and Danielle Mayer.
It was always our dream to live and travel fulltime in our RV. Beginning in August of 2000 we started living that dream
as fulltime RVers. It is a lifestyle that we enjoy and we do not see ourselves "coming off the road" unless medical
conditions force us to.
When planning for the fulltime lifestyle we had to consider what type of RV to use. For us, a fifth wheel trailer pulled
by a truck was the best choice. We thought we chose the ultimate tow vehicle when we purchased our Ford F550. We were wrong!
We now tow with a Heavy Duty Truck (HDT), otherwise known as a semi-truck. Yes, these are the trucks you see towing freight
all over the country. An HDT is truely the ultimate tow vehicle. It can tow any RV trailer on the market, stops easily with
weight behind it, and is more capable in every regard than the typical RV tow vehicle. In addition, it is easier to drive
than a crewcab dually pickup. However, an HDT is not for everyone.
This website provides information on HDTs as used for RV towing, factors to consider in deciding if an HDT is for you,
conversion of the HDT to a motorhome, solar and electrical issues relating to the truck and RV's in general, and some insight
into the RV lifestyle and boondocking (living off-grid in an RV). It does not provide info on fulltime RVing or determining
if our lifestyle would suit you. For information on fulltime RVing we recommend our friends Howard and Linda Payne's website,
http://www.rv-dreams.com/ and their daily blog, http://www.rv-dreams.typepad.com/.
We also do not cover general towing information - how to calculate towing capacity, the difference between GVWR, GAWR,
GCWR, etc. A good resource for that information is at the website of Mark and Dale Bruss; http://www.dmbruss.com. Probably the best resource on the web for info on HDT's is the HDT section of the Escapees RV Club forum: http://escapees.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x
The information here consists of a mixture of our opinions, and facts.
Where information is opinion, it is either apparant, or I try to specify that it is opinion. Factual information on electrical
implementations, etc., follows best practices and code, where applicable. If you are not sure, do your own research.
For almost three years our Volvo 610 tractor was our only vehicle. We are often asked how we managed daily driving in
such a large vehicle. The reality is, that our Volvo tractor is not much bigger than a crewcab dually pickup (it
is slightly longer, and the same width). We now have a Jeep for offroad use, which we tow behind our 5th wheel. You
can read about towing doubles (or triple towing) in the Registration, Licensing, and Other Legal Stuff section.
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