Preparation to Live in Our Trailer

So now we have a trailer and a truck to tow it, these two purchases are the biggest of our trip, and by far the most expensive. Thank goodness we sold our investment unit. I look back at all the research I have done and the hours on the Internet and it has been truly worth it, we are very happy so far. John is driving our truck to work on Saturdays to keep it running so another bonus. Another thing I would recommend is starting a spread sheet to track your costs. I started one to track everything, costs, days in the US, fuel costs and park costs, and anything else I needed to track, of course i can only average expected costs but it at least gave us an idea of what to expect. I also figured that come entry into the USA I can prove that we spent money and are paying our own way.

We now needed to buy all the things we thought we would need for a year. Remember we are not just there for four or six weeks we have a whole year of living in our trailer so taking this into account we started a list of things we will need. There was two ways we could approach this, shop when we get there or do it online. If we it did when we got there we would have to take into account the time both in travel and actual shopping, John does not exactly live in town he is on 90 acres so shopping is not what you would call local. Also we did not want to spend the first week none stop running around, we could be more productive setting our fifth wheel up so as usual it was to the Internet. One of the first things is sheets, doona, towels etc. we already had an account at Target USA so this was the obvious place to start. So off to Target we went and there was plenty to choose from. So in the end we got,
Two Sheet sets, four towels, mattress protector, doona, pillows, hand towels, bath mats, fleece blankets and many other items for $360-00 we had to pay "shipping" $50 but it was worth it, the nearest Target to Johns place is about 50 miles away. The other benefit to buying before we get there is we are able spread the costs, we figured by the time we arrive we will have paid for everything, except for fuel, food and parks.

We also needed to fit out the kitchen with plates, knives, forks, saucepans, cups and the many other things we would need on a daily basis. So I typed into google "starter kit RV" well I got a great hit I found a site that could provide a 139 piece kit for $124-00 delivered, this came with everything. Apart from the above it had, tumblers (glasses), plastic storage set, cutting knives, bread board even a first aid kit. Ok it may not be top quality but it gets us started and keep us out of trouble.

We can now shower and dry ourselves, sleep, prepare food and eat in our trailer, things are looking good.

So the preparations continue....


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane

Photo's of Our Truck

Side steps so Rose can get in, the spec's say our truck is 5.8 metres long!


Now that's a grill!


Rails and toolbox included


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Bridgeport West Virginia

We Found Our Truck!

Well as I searched each and every day, day in day out constantly researching trucks I came across one that really caught my eye! Ok so it was at the older end of the year model that I wanted, that is, 2005 but the photo looked fantastic, in fact the photo backed up the the description to a tee. So I did some more specific research on the 2005 Dodge I had found, I was excited! This truck was looking like a one in a million offer and your instinct kicks in to the old saying, if it sounds to good to be true it most likely is, that said it needed more investigation.
The truck was a 2005 Dodge 2500 Laramie, 26000 miles on the clock, heated leather seats, long bed and as a bonus it had rails in the bed for a hitch and a brake package a saving of around $1000 as I would not have to install these.

The first thing to find out is, how far it was from Johns place, after all he was the one who would inspect it and pay on our behalf. So onto google maps to find out where Bridgeport WV was, WV that would be West Virginia and as luck would have it it was on the border of Ohio in an easterly direction, fantastic, It was some 200 miles or four and a half hours drive. So now I was really excited, breath in breath out Ron think logically. So the next hurdle was would John drive that far? A call to John quickly fixed that, he drives 140 miles each day round trip just to get to work and home again, so this was no problem for him. I sent him the links to the truck, he said looks great when do you want me to go? Hold that thought I will get back to you.

So now it was a phone call to the dealer at Carder Motors Inc in West Virginia early on a Sunday morning. I spoke to the owner Mark and Col his son, Col even provided me with his dads home number so I could get more answers to my many questions, it was late Saturday afternoon there taking into account the time difference and I really appreciated the great service and effort they put in, I would recommend them.

In the USA they have a system called Carfax, it's basically one big data base on vehicles, it provides a total history of the vehicle. It list such thing as, any collisions, if it's been registered as a " lemon", if there is a loan outstanding on the vehicle, the full service history, which verifies the milage, its registration history and many other things. My truck came up as a guaranteed one owner and as such came with a buy back guarantee if any of the report was found to be faulty, I was happy.

The history of the truck was, wait for it, an older gentleman who once a year pulled his fifth wheeler to Florida, in other words a real " snow birder". The Carfax report verified all this so on that basis we bought the truck including a new hitch.

I arranged for John and his wife to drive over to West Virginia, I immediately got onto Ozforex and as always got a great rate and transferred the money, not forgetting sales tax for Ohio which is 7%.

Two days later John test drove the truck and confirmed it was all ok, paid with a bank cheque and the truck was now ours, or technically Johns as we don't have a social security number. The truck came with 60 days tags or temporary registration.

We ok'd for John to drive the truck to work a few times to iron out any bugs or faults, all it needed was new wiper blades, got to be happy with that!


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane

Buying Our New Truck

Ok so I set myself some parameters to search and search I did, every day onto cars.com. I was in no rush to buy, this was an advantage as there was no pressure to have a truck, say by next week I could browse to my hearts content. I saved many trucks in my favourites and as expected many were sold, that was fine, again no rush for me. One thing I was mindful of was the length of the bed sometimes described as the "box". There are many lengths to choose from, not just an A and B. For towing a fifth wheel trailer a long bed is preferable it gives you the room to turn and stops the trailer hitting your cab. You can have a short bed truck but a slider hitch is a must. There are manual sliders and auto sliders it just depends on your budget and how much you have to spend. Having spoken to the dealer that sold us our fifth wheel it was put rather simply, you need a long bed, no long bed then you MUST have a slider hitch, or you will basically void your warranty. Makes perfect sense to me. I am no expert at this so if that's what the advice is I will take with both arms.

Its at this point I will mention another web site I found, called Texas Auto Direct it boasts 6 acres of cars and I liked what I saw and spent hours searching their site. As part of my search I came across a site totally dedicated to "bagging" them, it was a real eye opener so I eared on the side of caution and went back to cars.com, I was amazed at the comments on Texas Autos sales tactics. As I was buying a truck from the other side of the world I did not need any issues with reputation.

So it was back to cars.com and I continued searching, day in day out, poor Rose, I was spending most my life looking at an IPad!

We still had 3 months till we left so again no rush, I just wanted to get the knowledge, I was hungry for it and I figured that if I put the time in now that would mean a good truck and a hassle free trip for twelve months.

Then.....




- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane

Getting the right truck (ute)

Ok so now we have a trailer and need something to tow it with. There are so many trucks in the US that just choosing one can be daunting. Coming from Australian about the only truck we are familiar with is the Ford F250 unless you count the tiny trucks i.e. Toyota and Mitsubishi but we all know these are not "real" trucks. Now we all know that the USA is truck heaven so if you are brand loyal Ford would be the most likely choice. So this is where I started, hit google and start searching. There are so many forums to choose from and lots of opinions from people. I started with Ford because this is all I knew. I read many things including that Ford had some problems with exhaust gases, to technical for me, so I asked my brother in law his opinion. As luck would have it a work mate of his has a F250 and a fifth wheel and in his opinion his advice was go the Dodge RAM with a Cummins diesel engine, I new that cummins diesel is used in heavy machinery and that was about it, so that was my starting point. I new nothing but had to start some place. I down loaded cars.com app to the iPad and started my search. I researched the internet every chance I got, I checked cars.com every second day. Of course that's not the only site I used but it enabled me to save my favourites and compare vehicles. With so many choices I set myself some boundaries.
Brand - Dodge RAM
Model - 2500 RAM I6 Diesel
Body Type - Quad cab (dual cab)
Tray - long bed but open to short bed but a slider hitch would be needed that's more dollars
Mileage - nothing over 100,000
Year - 2004 to 2008
It also let's you set a search area parameter i.e. 30 miles to unlimited miles from a set zip code we used Johns place.

If you don't set some parameters you will be looking forever.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane