Thinking of moving to a motorhome

[DavidM]

Well TF member Stu and I closed on our 16TBS this morning and he is on his way back to Florida, so I am LLless as well as RVless until our new Thor comes in next year.

Congratulations to Stu. I think he got a gem- a pure Scott Tuttle built trailer sometime in late 2013. Mine was pretty basic and the only thing I ever did or added to it was remove the silly breakaway battery and wire it directly to the main trailer battery. Oh I did put in a circuit breaker near the battery to protect the wire to the power panel and immediately replaced the POS OEM mattress, well pad actually. Why very few trailers come with that circuit protection is beyond me.

Stu has some ambitious plans to upgrade his trailer but I will leave it to him to comment.

David

[Merlin]

Well TF member Stu and I closed on our 16TBS this morning and he is on his way back to Florida, so I am LLless as well as RVless until our new Thor comes in next year.

Congratulations to Stu. I think he got a gem- a pure Scott Tuttle built trailer sometime in late 2013. Mine was pretty basic and the only thing I ever did or added to it was remove the silly breakaway battery and wire it directly to the main trailer battery. Oh I did put in a circuit breaker near the battery to protect the wire to the power panel and immediately replaced the POS OEM mattress, well pad actually. Why very few trailers come with that circuit protection is beyond me.

Stu has some ambitious plans to upgrade his trailer but I will leave it to him to comment.

David

So now that's it's been 4 days, are you moving through the grieving process ok  Is there a good forum for the new Thor unit? It'll be fun to hear about your adventures in a class A.

[stu1965]

We arrived home safe and sound this weekend, after a long 1500 mile drive home (and 6 campgrounds every spaced by 4 hour daily drives). There's a lot to share, and I'm going to try to push all of that story into a youtube video. There's a lot of content, so it may take a bit to get that done.

In short, my wife Edye and I are super thankful to David and Joan. We started this journey of finding an RV in February. At that time, the goal was 1) to lower our hotel costs when we go scuba diving on the east coast of FLA (we're just north of Tampa FL), and 2) to have a bug out solution for hurricane season. I started with a rather large spreadsheet of 20ft TT's, and eventually found my way to the Livin Lites. May 9th, I posted interest here in finding one, and David shot me a note stating he was considering selling. Since then, David and I have had a virtual handshake agreement (i also called Dibs, lol). We agreed that he would enjoy this northern camping season, and we would purchase when they were done. That allowed us time to scratch up the cash rather than take a quick loan. All the while, he could have sold to someone else. He did not. A true gentleman David is, and from May to Oct, I sent a bajillion questions, all of which he patiently put up with. When we finally met, I was mildly saddened we could not swap out the virtual handshake for a real one, as we socially distanced as best we could. I look forward to the time we can shake hands for real David, and share a whiskey together.

So.....as of Oct 22, we're now the owners of David's 2013 16tbs, proudly I might add. DMV this wednesday to register. There are a few things to fix right away, starting with some new Maxxis shoes (ordered yesterday), Fantastic fan (ordered), and some annoying little fixes (kitchen window arm, light covers, vent covers). Yesterday, we ripped up the carpet, and mineral oiled the bejesus out of the floor, and it looks brand new. Still hunting down some memory foam mattresses. I'm going to design some kind of 'mattress bridge' between the two twin beds, as our two fur babies are bed sleepers and tend to sleep with Edye, thus making her twin side crowded.

2021 punch list includes some lithium batteries, solar, weboost, new couch, A/C change (of some sort) and figure out a bike rack. Perhaps a new awning as well - I really want that window open when the awning is retracted.

We are proud to become part of the LL family and hope not only to make David proud as he watches our changes and trips, but the rest of you as well. I've been reading your stories for months and look forward to posting our own (more likely video stories though). Please be patient with me as I post my questions as we go.

Warm Regards,
Stu and Edye Beans

[djsamuel]

Great to hear.  I didn't realize the agreement to buy was made so long ago.  That worked out really well for both of you.

Best of luck and enjoy your purchase!

Doug

[DavidM]

Thanks for the kind words Stu. Let me offer some suggestions for your list of upgrades:

The A/C is well known to be noisy. We never used it in the NE. When it was too hot to camp without, we didn't camp. But there is an outfit that sells a quieting kit, although it mostly works on outside noise. There may be thread here on it and probably one in the archives.

The awning was a constant sore point for us as well. If LL had just installed a foot longer awning, it wouldn't block the window as the OEM one does. A longer awning will need a strong attachment point so find the inside studs and attach to that. The aluminum sheet won't cut it. Some have said that a stud finder works to find the studs and cross framing.

If you search here and in the archives you will find some have strengthened the rear bumper to support a hitch socket and installed a hitch mounted bike rack.

I too never liked the OEM couch. Good luck with a new one.

Enjoy your new trailer.

David

[Chappy133]

Since my wife called dibs on the window that opens and I got the awning side on our TBS.  I found out you can disconnect the awning base from the camper and I walk the foot out and extend it to the a table or chair.  This allows me to open the window. To close you have to flip the lever at the top for the awning to open to rotate the leg back. Don't forget to flip back to retract when stowed. 

Dave provided us a lot of assistance when we ordered ours from the dealer.  Ours was one of the last all aluminum models off the line in January 2016.  The TPO roofs started in February.

Enjoy!