Monday, December 19, 2011
The Truck
We decided which truck to buy: A Dodge Ram 3500 with "Crew Cab", meaning there is enough space for seating 5 people comfortably. It comes with a 6.7 liter Diesel with about 350 hp, the torque is with 650 lb.ft (about 830 Nm) more than ample to pull our rig. We are looking for a pre-owned 2010 model; with the high value loss during the first year it just does not make too much sense to buy a new one. If we get one in January, we would be able to pick up the trailer ourselves (in Indiana) rather than having it delivered to Hilton Head.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Now it's all getting real
A few months ago, out of the blue Silke declared: "I want to get weird".
As a loving husband, I resisted the temptation to say "Aren't you already?", but entered a conversation that lasted several days, at the end of which we decided to get rid of both of our houses and to travel across the United States for a year. The timing was pretty much a no brainer: It would have to be Benjamin's 5. grade, from summer 2012 to summer 2013.
Now, is that weird? The few friends and family we shared the news with fell just short of saying that, politely....
Needless to say, when we told Benjamin about our plans, he was all enthusiastic, his first question was: "Are we leaving tomorrow?" I suspect 50% of his excitement was about not having to go to school for a year...
We spent the next few weeks selecting the rig we wanted to travel with. From the very beginning, we all agreed it should be a 5th wheel trailer, because we wanted as much space around us as possible,but not a 40 ft behemoth of motorhome like the one we rented last summer in California. After countless hours on the internet, several visits to RV dealers, and even more hours of discussing the pros and cons of the hundreds of different types and floorplans available, we decided to buy the Montana 313RE, made by Keystone:
As a loving husband, I resisted the temptation to say "Aren't you already?", but entered a conversation that lasted several days, at the end of which we decided to get rid of both of our houses and to travel across the United States for a year. The timing was pretty much a no brainer: It would have to be Benjamin's 5. grade, from summer 2012 to summer 2013.
Now, is that weird? The few friends and family we shared the news with fell just short of saying that, politely....
Needless to say, when we told Benjamin about our plans, he was all enthusiastic, his first question was: "Are we leaving tomorrow?" I suspect 50% of his excitement was about not having to go to school for a year...
We spent the next few weeks selecting the rig we wanted to travel with. From the very beginning, we all agreed it should be a 5th wheel trailer, because we wanted as much space around us as possible,but not a 40 ft behemoth of motorhome like the one we rented last summer in California. After countless hours on the internet, several visits to RV dealers, and even more hours of discussing the pros and cons of the hundreds of different types and floorplans available, we decided to buy the Montana 313RE, made by Keystone:
I
If someone wants to view a photo gallery, here is a link: http://www.gervcenter.com/detail.cfm?ID=492139&V=2012%20Keystone%20Montana%20High%20Country%20313RE%20
A few data:
Length: 36' (10.80 m)
Slideouts: 4
Width including slideouts: 14' (4.20 m)
Weight: 9,630 lbs (4,370 kg)
The RV is going to be delivered end of January.
The next step is to select and buy the pickup truck that will pull the trailer. We plan to do that in January.
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