Would RVing fit our vacation style?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Hmmm. Very interesting, Ernie 'n Tara! I guess trial and error will tell us how long we can leave our doggies alone in the rig (once we get a rig). Thanks for the info.
 
You may want to also consider the size of the propane tank and for that matter the other tanks as well. A van conversion just doesn't offer much as far as dry camping for several days. The propane tank is not big enough to cook and run heating or a fgenerator to run the AC.
 
Duncan (our dog) loves to travel with us.  From the time Charlie pulls up in front of the house Duncan knows he is going somewhere soon and is unable to control himself.  Since for a typical trip Charlie comes home on Wednesday night and we depart on Friday afternoon it is a couple of days of excitement for the little guy.  He and Bear (our 2.5 year old son) make quite the pair bugging us about when we are leaving.

Duncan is a great dog in our house, he doesn't damage anything and never makes messes.  We leave him inside by himself at least a couple of times per week.  The motor home is a different thing all together.  Duncan must be crated when we leave the motor home or he will bark at anything that passes the windows when we are gone.  he has also thrashed a couple of sets of blinds and scratched a seat that we had to have reupholstered.  Thankfully all of that was in our previous rig, so one of the requirements when we bought the new one was a good place to store the crate assembled while traveling.

It seems like you are pretty set on the van route, and that's great but buy a used one first and see how well you like using it.  They are expensive used but the good thing is that if you love it and want a new one you wont loose much in the transfer, the excellent news is if  it is just too small and you want something much larger you wont loose much in the transfer!  Everyone does things differently but my wife and I together with a not yet mobile 6 month old and a 20 pound brown dog in a 30' class A could be cramped at times, I cant even dream about a Class B let alone 2 larger dogs.  I will say the 30' class A moved and parked similar to a very large pickup truck.  No problems with driving it.  My dad's long bed king cab dodge is almost as long at 27.5', it just isn't as tall.

Jeff
 
It would not fit the dogs style!  Please, please do not take your dogs.  It does not take much outside heat to increase the inside temp.  While it is possible to leave the air cond on while connected to elec. I think your dogs would be happier with a dog sitter.  If you were them, would you be happy being left in the van while your owners went away?  I love dogs, we camped with them before they passed away, but we always kept their needs as a priority and never left them long or without ensuring they had water and cool air. 
 
Rocky35 said:
I think your dogs would be happier with a dog sitter.

That's certainly a dog-by-dog basis, and I'd imagine the OP knows their dogs best.  Our pup freaks out when she's not around us and in strange places (i.e. a dog sitter or kennel), and her digestive system can be upset for several days after we get home.  But she loves our RV and camping, and has no problem being in the rig alone.  There are times she's left alone in the camper for a few hours if we're out running errands or doing some activity... just like at home, where she routinely keeps watch over the house while we're away for a half-day or whatever.  That's what suits her best.

Rocky35 said:
never left them long or without ensuring they had water and cool air.

It looks like the OP would be meeting these needs too... I don't read anywhere above that their dogs would be left in a hot, unventilated RV without food or water.  If that were the case, I certainly would suggest they reconsider also.
 
Thanks, everyone, for your thoughtful and interesting posts. We'll think this all over carefully and take a short trial run first (initially without the dogs, then with them) before buying any rig. 

jeffbrown, I love that your dog is named Duncan, and you call your toddler Bear!

Badger Gal

 
We found Duncan at a local pound and even though the ad was completely off in describing him we just had to take him home.  We found him on the internet, and the add had been switched up with another dog who had already been adopted.  (Description and photo were for a different dog.)  When they brought this skinny brown fluff mutt out to my wife in the grassy visitors area, she just couldn't leave him there.  The description was of a 35-40 pound dog with the picture of something that could have been a Springer mix, they brought out an 18 pound all brown fluffy and frightened thing.  No one has ever been able to figure out what Duncan is, and when people ask we just say he is brown.  So below for your viewing pleasure is Duncan the Brown Dog.

FYI, we really do call our son Bear, so much so that he answers to it like it was his real name.  We used to call him Bubba when he was a baby but a Texan friend of mine told me that "He looses 2 IQ points and his teeth grow more crooked every time you call that poor child by that retched nickname!"  So shortly after that he became known as our little bear, now he is just bear.

Jeff Brown
 

Attachments

  • Duncan Looks (websized).JPG
    Duncan Looks (websized).JPG
    111.9 KB · Views: 23
I've been watching this thread as a prospective RV'er (We're looking at class C) and dog owner.  One of the things we like is to be able to bring our dog with us. 

I'm just curious - why not leave them in the RV at the campground with the AC on?  For them it would be no different than home (although a bit smaller) and the AC should keep them cool.  If the AC were to die it would be no different than if the AC died at home, right?  I mean dogs/cats don't necessarily need AC.  As long as there's enough water I would think they would be fine.

When we went tent camping there was no AC and the dog got along fine.  She drank lots of water but we all survived.
 
itguy08 said:
I'm just curious - why not leave them in the RV at the campground with the AC on?  For them it would be no different than home (although a bit smaller) and the AC should keep them cool.  If the AC were to die it would be no different than if the AC died at home, right?  I mean dogs/cats don't necessarily need AC.  As long as there's enough water I would think they would be fine.

When we went tent camping there was no AC and the dog got along fine.  She drank lots of water but we all survived.
The main difference between your stick house and the RV is air volume and insulation.  A RV can heat up like an automobile when the windows are all closed and the A/C off.  The smaller the RV, the faster it will heat up.  Also, a class 'B' (the OP first mentioned a Roadtrek) is not much more than a van and would heat up very fast in the sun.  Keep in mind, any vehicle can heat up to much higher temps than the outside air if parked in the sun and poor Fido won't be able to roll down the windows.  As for your comment about tents, I doubt if you stayed in a tent with the flaps all zipped up and no air flow.

The key for the most part is air flow.  Most animals can exist reasonably comfortably if there is air circulation and they have access to water.  However, the windows would be closed if using A/C and most folks are a bit concerned about leaving their RV with windows open.  If the A/C fails for whatever reason, puppy could be in real trouble quickly.

Dogs (pets) are great to take along.  I take my Westie all the time.  One just has to use common sense.
 
The theory of not leaving the pooch in the rig is that IF the power somehow failed while you were away the motor home being a vehicle would heat up much faster than your stick home and could injure or kill your beloved pooch.  We actually had our generator stall while we were in Walmart in Bullhead City AZ, but it was in September and the vehicle temp was still under 85 when we returned.  I don't know how long the generator and consequently the AC were off but we tend not to dally in stores while the dog is in the rig.

In moderate temps a vent open and Fantastic Fan running would also help a great deal.

Jeff
 
Leaving a window or roof vent cracked would provide some airflow in the event of A/C failure... which would be exceedingly rare I'd think, although certainly not impossible.  I don't have any problem leaving a "ground floor" window open either, as our dog would probably scare anyone away who got too close to the RV if we weren't there.  Most campgrounds are pretty safe places.
 
Thanks for the replies.  It does make sense that heat build up would be an issue but I figured if you were in a shaded campground the heating would be minimal. Nowhere near as bad as a car in the sun.  I mean I take our dog out running with me in the summer (she loves to go) - just make sure we have plenty of water and she handles it just fine.

Yes, we did tent camp in the summer and sometimes left her in the tent crated while we were out - never an issue as the tent was always in the shade.  We learned real quick she needed to be crated when she pawed her way through the side of the tent.  It wasn't often that we didn't take her with us but it did happen and 11 years later she seems to be no worse for the wear. :)
 
I think it also may depend on the location of the campground.  There's a HUGE difference during the summer between camping, for example, along the coast of Maine and the inland deserts of our southwest.  The hypothetical place in Maine might have lovely big trees and the temperature doesn't get above 80 even if the breeze dies, but the desert campground may have relatively small trees that provide little shade and the temperatures might be well above 110 even with a breeze.  So, as someone else mentioned, it's really using common sense.

ArdraF
 
Perhaps that is the difference - we've only camped in the Northeast.  But like you all said - common sense is the best policy.
 
While we're thinking about AC's that quit. I think the color of the rig is the dominant factor here; we have an all white (except for some swooshes) rig, including the roof, where many of the full paint rigs are very dark. All else being equal, the temperature rise in a dark rig will be twice that of the light one.
We also leave the vents open and both AC's on (one is usually set high) and don't worry about the heat in Texas when we leave the dog inside.
JM2C
Ernie
 

Forum statistics

Threads
131,749
Posts
1,384,209
Members
137,520
Latest member
jeep3501
Back
Top Bottom