RV Wanderlust

Full-time Living in Our Diesel RV

Annual Report: 2015 RV Repairs and Maintenance

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Annual RV Maintenance

Meriwether on the lift at Iron Horse RV in San Antonio, TX

As our second full year of owning Meriwether and traveling full-time, 2015 offered complete relief from the breakdowns and emergency maintenance we dealt with throughout 2014. We started and ended the year in the shop, but it was by choice!

We’ve actually developed a rhythm we hope to stick with. At the end of every year when we come back to Texas for the holidays, we get our regular maintenance done (oil change, fuel filter change, etc.), as well as minor repairs that have added up over the year. Our RV repair shop of choice is Iron Horse RV in San Antonio, who we first visited in December 2014. We really love the work they do for us and plan to be long-time customers.

Here’s the rundown of the repairs and maintenance we had done in 2015. [Read more…]

RV Bedroom Makeover

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Before RV Bedroom Makeover

Before our RV bedroom makeover, our old cornice box, headboard and wallpaper

I freaked out when I saw the inside of our RV for the first time.

On the surface, it seemed so dated, so in need of a refresh. It took Eric a while to convince me that everything I saw could be replaced, and that the “bones” were what counted. So we made sure the batteries and tires were new, and that the roof looked good and there wasn’t any water damage.

In the year and a half that we’ve lived in Meriwether, we’ve done some projects here and there. I painted our dinette cushions and living room trim, and reupholstered our living room cornice boxes with a little help from our friends.

It wasn’t until after those projects that we decided on a nautical theme for our RV, plus our kitten tore up my gorgeous cornice boxes, so the living area is in overall need of attention. But the good news is that we hadn’t touched our bedroom, except for investing in new bedding, so we were able to build on a blank slate as we took on our RV bedroom makeover. [Read more…]

How to Protect the Front of Your RV

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How to Protect the Front of Your RV

Brittany and I have been RVing around the country full time for over a year now and we have to tell you that it’s truly a wonderful life – everything we ever hoped it would be and more.

For those of you who follow our blog at RV Wanderlust, you know we live an exciting and crazy life. But this life, just like any other, presents it’s own unique challenges.

While we love the road, the road does not necessarily love our home. All homeowners want to protect their investment, and it’s no different for those of us full time RVers who live in a moving home. Any RVer who has been on the road for any length of time will tell you that arguably the hardest part of your RV to protect from miles of travel is the front end cap. [Read more…]

Update on RV Repairs and Maintenance: Second Half of 2014

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Camping World RV Service

Taking care of our home is very important to us!

Any home you own, whether it has wheels or not, is going to need repairs and maintenance. It’s just a fact of life. Considering we live in a house composed of thousands of parts that are constantly being bumped and shaken, our first year on the road was not so bad as far as repairs were concerned.

The biggest inconvenience (and biggest difference between an RV and “normal” house) is that we have to vacate the premises whenever repairs are done. This takes careful scheduling, and usually means we collect maintenance items to knock out all at one time.

We’ve visited three repair shops since our big breakdown in July, which I want to describe here. I’ll conclude with an overview of all our repairs and maintenance in 2014, as well as associated costs. [Read more…]

Tackling Mold in Our RV

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Mold in RV

Yikes! Mold in our RV!

“Oh…there’s mold down here” is sure to make anyone’s heart sink. We’ve noticed a couple of stray leaks near our front windshield during this abnormally wet summer. But just a couple of weeks ago, Eric noticed a patch of mold in the far corner of the carpeting under our steering wheel. Yikes!

The growth can’t be too old because I like to consider us observant. It’s also not due to any leak we know of, which means there’s water coming in from a mysterious location (not good). We haven’t been able to fix the source of the problem yet, but we jumped on treating what we could see. And it wasn’t pretty… [Read more…]

Fulltime RV Breakdown: What Happened and How It Was Resolved

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As a full-time RVer, one of the most unsettling things that can happen is a breakdown. I mean, let’s face it, we’re not talking about a car. We can’t just get a rental while our rig is in the shop. We’re talking about our home!

This is a LONG post, and it was a LONG few days. But we promised to be transparent, and if you really want to know about us and how we handled our breakdown…it is quite a story.

First Signs of the Breakdown

We were headed from Florida Caverns State Park to Kissimmee, FL. We had just wrapped up a week of fun in swimming holes, caverns and on trails as we headed down I-75. Brittany was driving Meriwether (our 40′ diesel pusher Tiffin Phaeton) and I was driving Smaug (our trusty Jeep). The boys were with me and Arianna had decided to ride with Brittany.

We pulled off the interstate to get some fuel at a Pilot Travel Center in Ocala, FL when Meriwether started making some strange noises. I wasn’t there obviously, but Brittany described it as a “rough idling that sounded like Meriwether wanted to lurch forward, and it kind of went like, ‘ruuum ca-chunk-ca-chunk.'” [Read more…]

Photo Tour: Our 40 Foot Diesel RV After 4 Months

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It’s so lovely to make any place into a home, and an RV is no different. Though Eric has owned a few homes over time, this is my first, so I’ve had a lot of fun “nesting” since we purchased Meriwether in January 2014.

Some of you may have seen my photo tour of Meriwether when we purchased him. Four months later, the interior looks quite a bit different! I hope you enjoy the walk-through – I certainly enjoyed setting up for photos!

(Note: Eric was enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon of Gold Rush, so I did my best not to disturb him! You may notice the TV screen in a few photos…)

Living Area

Redecorated RV Living and Dining

Come on in!

Come on in! Here are comparison shots of [Read more…]

Why You Need to Do Your Own Annual RV Roof Maintenance

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Most RV maintenance shops charge $80-100+ per hour for labor. And while some jobs are well worth it, any job that you can comfortably do on your own could potentially save you hundreds of dollars.

From the get-go, let me say that if I can do this RV maintenance task…anyone can.

Saving dollars by DIY maintenance on an RV

Doing your own annual RV roof maintenance could save you hundreds of dollars (Photo credit: 401(k) via Flickr CC)

When the good Lord was passing out handyman skills, I must have been asleep. I’m pretty much clueless when it comes to anything handyman-ish or mechanical. I’m so bad, it is almost laughable.

But honestly, this annual RV roof maintenance was a breeze. So, if you are one of those folks who has been thinking that you’d rather pay someone to do this for you, think again and give this guide a quick read first. [Read more…]

Redecorating the RV: Window Cornice Box Reupholstery

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Old RV Cornice Boxes

Kerensa and me with the old cornice boxes

After you’ve seen a few brand new RVs, stepping into a coach that’s over a decade old can jar your aesthetic sensibilities. In fact, as we went through the purchase process with Meriwether, Eric had to keep reminding me that all the outdated and worn things I saw inside could be changed.

First project: dinette cushions. They grossed me out, so I painted them.

Second project: cornice boxes. Though I didn’t know what they were called at first, I immediately knew they had to go.

Frankly, I had no clue where to start. I read a few articles online and the process sounded too complicated for me. I was extremely fortunate to [Read more…]

Visiting the Home of Tiffin Motorhomes in Red Bay, Alabama

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1976 Allegro Gas RV by Tiffin

Red Bay, Alabama, where all Tiffin Motorhomes are built. Pictured is a 1976 Allegro Gas RV.

We veered away from the beauty of the Natchez Trace Parkway to make the obligatory stop that every Tiffin owner has to make: the trip to Red Bay, Alabama, home of Tiffin Motorhomes.

Yes, this is Meriwether’s birthplace. For those new to the blog, Meriwether is the name of our 2004 40′ Diesel Tiffin Motorhome, named after Meriwether Lewis. Even though we had only owned Meriwether for less than three months, there was a certain nostalgia in making the journey to where he was built. That and we needed some work done. [Read more…]

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Welcome to RV Wanderlust! We're Eric and Brittany Highland and we're on a pretty amazing adventure. As of 2019, we're starting our sixth year as fulltime RVers and we've been transparently documenting the journey all along the way. In December 2016 we … Keep reading

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