Hello! New to RV'ing and so very excited! (EPro 19FBS)

[CJGray]

Hello Hello!

My name is Courtney and my husband and I are in the process of buying a 2019 EPro 19FBS. Up until this year, we've tent camped, canoe camped, and stayed in primitive cabins when the family goes on the annual camping trip. We take our 7 year old Plott Hound mix with us whenever possible when we travel.

A little over a year ago I broached the subject of moving to a travel trailer since getting in and out of our four person, 3 season tent - and trying to get dressed in it - was starting to become an exercise in patience and moving without causing random muscle cramps. We weighed all the pros and cons and we've finally taken the plunge and put a deposit down! We will be finalizing the purchase in the coming weeks. There's no rush since winter is upon us here in PA and we'd just be taking it from one lot to another for storage for a couple of months.

When we went to look at the EPros, I thought I wanted a 19QB or 19FD model, but after seeing the way the 19FBS gives so much more space without the dedicated dinette, and the layout being exactly what we were looking for (I wanted the bed to be farthest from the door if possible since I'm a light sleeper and am usually the first to go to bed), I fell in love. We made sure to get the off road package since we prefer primitive/boondocking type sites to being in a campground setting. I can't wait to get out there more and have the perfect little getaway spot wherever we go!

If anyone has tips for this specific model or RV'ing with pets, I'm happy to hear them. I'll be scouring through the forums for ideas and to learn about everyone's experiences with all the aspects of owning and using an RV.

Cheers!

[mdstudey]

Welcome. I travel with a Doberman, 3 cats and a parrot. My cats are indoor. We put the litterbox in the bathroom. Added a cat door to keep dog out. All pets (except parrot) are on leashes when traveling and connected to seat belts. I would say that the most important thing is to travel with their shot records and have them chipped. If my dog is tied out and starts barking she gets brought in or told NO! Yeah she listens most of the time. Always on leash and we recycle plastic bags from produce or grocery store to pick up poop. Always also have poop bags on hand. We have a 23 foot trailer and it is not overcrowded. We have a spot for the parrot cage and the dog found her out of the way place. Have fun with your new trailer. If I could I would be still tent camping.

[CJGray]

Originally Posted by mdstudey

Welcome. I travel with a Doberman, 3 cats and a parrot. My cats are indoor. We put the litterbox in the bathroom. Added a cat door to keep dog out. All pets (except parrot) are on leashes when traveling and connected to seat belts. I would say that the most important thing is to travel with their shot records and have them chipped. If my dog is tied out and starts barking she gets brought in or told NO! Yeah she listens most of the time. Always on leash and we recycle plastic bags from produce or grocery store to pick up poop. Always also have poop bags on hand. We have a 23 foot trailer and it is not overcrowded. We have a spot for the parrot cage and the dog found her out of the way place. Have fun with your new trailer. If I could I would be still tent camping.

That's a lot of love traveling with you! We only have our dog and one cat. She's usually good being left while we go for a weekend, but I've toyed with the idea of bringing her with when we do our 5 day trip in October. I'm just not sure where her litter box would work in the 19ft trailer. That and where to put food and water dishes would be my two biggest concerns. I'm considering a narrow, wall mounted dish for inside.

The other stuff (always on leash, reusing grocery bags, etc) we do already, and both animals are chipped, so no worries there. We just got Cooper a harness that locks to the seat belt in the car. I should have done that much sooner - it's so much better and I don't worry about him being on the seat and falling forward. He seems much more confident in the car too.


I still love tent camping, and originally I asked about just getting a larger tent that would be easier to get in and out of, and that i could stand up in or at the very least have more room to change clothes in when it's too cold to do so outside of the tent. His concern was keeping a larger tent warm since our tent is a three season with a fly that reaches the ground. To him, the camper made more sense than a bigger tent. We may still tent from time to time - definitely when we canoe camp. I'm more excited about not having to be as concerned with what the weather is doing or what time we pull in to camp to set up, and being able to just go. <3

[tomkatb]

Go online and get a poop bag holder and box of the bags. Clip it to the leash so it is never forgotten.

Make sure you have a tray to go under the puppy's dishes.

Go to Loews and buy the $4.95 square tip screwdriver!

Bungy cord sets are a requirement.

Install some type of battery monitor, so you know where you are. Batteries are the weak part of rv's. It is really crappy when the furnace quits at 2 am.

Go for a weekend to some full service site and try everything out. It is far more difficult than most imagine the first time. Eat and drink well. Prep the water system for winter.

Have fun!

[CJGray]

Originally Posted by tomkatb

Go online and get a poop bag holder and box of the bags. Clip it to the leash so it is never forgotten.

Already have one - they're so convenient!

Make sure you have a tray to go under the puppy's dishes.

A must!

Go to Loews and buy the $4.95 square tip screwdriver!

I'm sure we have a set - my husband is always fixing things and is always bringing home new tools. Haha!

Bungy cord sets are a requirement.

Install some type of battery monitor, so you know where you are. Batteries are the weak part of rv's. It is really crappy when the furnace quits at 2 am.

We'll be buying more, I'm sure. I also think the FBS has a battery monitor. I'll make sure when they walk us through everything when we pick it up.

Go for a weekend to some full service site and try everything out. It is far more difficult than most imagine the first time. Eat and drink well. Prep the water system for winter.

I'm hoping to do at least a dry run once we pick it up, since it will be too cold to test AC and probably too cold to do a full weekend with water and sewer hookups. Since we're not planning to pick up until February, we'll probably be waiting until mid-March to do a full test run, as long as temps come up above freezing long enough by then. We probably should have just waited until spring to buy, but we were originally planning to purchase in August/September of 2019 and had a few setbacks, and the exact unit that we looked at was still at the lot once we got everything taken care of. I wanted to jump on it before it was gone.

Have fun!

I'm sure we will! Thank you!

[geeman53]

Welcome from SW Ohio , enjoy your 2019 EPro 19FBS TT !

[Chris Pastuzyn]

Welcome from New Jersey. We travel with our soon to be 9 Husky,
She is such a home body and just hangs out on a tether when we are outside, People can't get over how mellow she is.

[dahmerd]

So far very happy. My wife and I just purchased a Flagstaff e-pro E19FD in December 19, still trying to figure out all the electrical and electronics. We picked up the camper from the dealership and went to local state park campground
For 2 days . We used the heater, stove top and oven, could not Use the water system. It had been winterized.. your going to have to get sewer hose extensions,and fresh water hose for campground hook ups. make sure you plug the electrical cord to keep the battery charged during off season, the solar panel will not be able to keep up with the electrical drain from The campers system's.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Welcome from former tent campers! You're going to love not having to make and break camp with a tent. Gives you lots more time to play.

[greggcowan]

welcome from Central PA! happy and safe travels

[frank4711]

Welcome from SW FL ....

[CJGray]

Originally Posted by dahmerd

So far very happy. My wife and I just purchased a Flagstaff e-pro E19FD in December 19, still trying to figure out all the electrical and electronics. We picked up the camper from the dealership and went to local state park campground
For 2 days . We used the heater, stove top and oven, could not Use the water system. It had been winterized.. your going to have to get sewer hose extensions,and fresh water hose for campground hook ups. make sure you plug the electrical cord to keep the battery charged during off season, the solar panel will not be able to keep up with the electrical drain from The campers system's.

Congrats on your new trailer and thank you for the heads up regarding the unit! We're in a similar situation where we plan to pick it up at the end of February and take it to a local campground just to to an instant refresh on things we learn in the walk through and at least test the heater and electrical components. We won't be able to test a/c or water/sewer until April or so.

Nice to know about needing the extension and fresh water hose needing to be purchased. We were expecting to probably need to pick up an extension, but I could have sworn it was supposed to come with the fresh water hose. No biggie.

Good tip on the plugging in - I assume you mean to plug in when using the camper during off-season? Or do you mean plug it in while stored? I would think that the solar would be enough to keep the batteries topped off if the camper is not being used.

[CJGray]

Originally Posted by Reverse_snowbird

Welcome from former tent campers! You're going to love not having to make and break camp with a tent. Gives you lots more time to play.

That's part of what we're looking forward to. Get there, level off, and relax. Not having to worry as much about what the weather is doing is going to be nice, too! If it's a nasty, heavy rain day, we have somewhere to shelter comfortably and enjoy the smell and sound of the rain instead of being cramped inside a tiny tent and worrying about whether we need to bug out or will have damp gear if our tarping wasn't done 100% correctly. It's going to be great!

[Jfkmk]

Welcome from New Jersey! My wife and I graduated from tent camping to a trailer similar in size to the one you’re looking at. We love it, and have been all over the north east with it.

[spicercars]

Welcome from northern MN.

[14apex]

Like others, we've "moved" from pup tent, to "big" tent, to pop-up and to TT with slide. We always bring along Rudder, the wonder dog (...6 lb. Peek-a-Poo) & she let's us sleep in her bed . It sounds like you're all set with pet plans. If doing a lot of boondocking, you may want to consider an inverter generator as the RV's battery can be depleted pretty quickly, even when trying to conserve -- also, if you may need to run AC at times(?). (Lots of advice here on Generators & recommended sizes.) And, yes(!), how great it is to be "off the ground", able to stand up to dress, to have a real bed, AND to bring along your own kitchen/bath facilities! Y'all are gonna have lots of fun with the Epro!!

[Kimber45]

for sure a step up from a tent but be sure to study electric usage and water/tank capacities before boondocking and not being prepared for realistic expectations.

[CJGray]

Originally Posted by 14apex

If doing a lot of boondocking, you may want to consider an inverter generator as the RV's battery can be depleted pretty quickly, even when trying to conserve -- also, if you may need to run AC at times(?).

We'll definitely need a generator if wanting to run the AC, but for now we plan to only use that if we are able to hook to shore power. Gonna try seeing how well the Maxair fan with windows opened does for keeping it cooler, but we'll probably wind up investing in a good (quieter) generator for summer with AC.

Other than that, we're so used to tenting and primitive-type canoe camping that we're pretty good at not using much energy. Portable chargers for phones/blue tooth speakers (the phones are primarily being used for music if being used at all since we rarely have signal when we go). Someone told us to not have the water heater running until we need it to help minimize power drain.

[CJGray]

Originally Posted by Kimber45

for sure a step up from a tent but be sure to study electric usage and water/tank capacities before boondocking and not being prepared for realistic expectations.

Thanks for the advice!

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by CJGray

Someone told us to not have the water heater running until we need it to help minimize power drain.

Whoever told you that was wrong. Running the water heater and fridge on propane uses very little battery power, since it only uses battery power to light the propane. It's the furnace that is the biggest 12v power hog.