ependydad...Doug

Your trailer tires are likely only rated for 65mph, so that is going to be your top end for what you should be doing.

When I plan trips, I expect to travel at about 45-50mph overall once we account for stops. We do have 2 little ones and there is no eating in the vehicle so our stops are a little longer than others. We would do 600 miles in about 13 hours.

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I'd like to see some rule about running into people. Scooters and strollers are notorious for this. If you can't operate one properly, then you shouldn't be.

My wife got hit by an older lady on an electronic wheelchair. She tried to keep going, but I stopped her. She said my wife stepped into her path - my wife was literally standing still. She ended up with back pain for a couple of months from it.

I called Disney about it but there was really nothing they could do. It wasn't one of their rentals and I didn't get info from the butthat that hit her.

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I didn't like Sci Fi; but we enjoy 50s Prime Time.

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Did you do a backup first? Can you restore that?

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To the OP- my advice is based on Downtown Disney's BBB, I'm not sure about MK.

Though, we also did BBB before MK's opening once (makes for AWESOME photo ops). I'd guess that we did a taxi based on our prior experience.

And, I had my details wrong- the first story where we were late was from Grand Floridian to Downtown Disney.

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Take a taxi. We tried the bus for an early morning BBB at Downtown Disney from Port Orleans- French Quarter and ended up being late (even with a cast member there assuring us we would be fine). We got bumped back the schedule and ended up running thru Epcot to make our breakfast reservations on time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, that stinks. How early do they schedule BBB appointments at Downtown Disney? I'm pretty sure that there is no regular bus transportation to there until later in the morning.

I'm not following what you're saying about running thru Epcot for breakfast reservations. Was that another trip? Or after your BBB appointment? If it's the latter, how did you get to Epcot from Downtown Disney?

TCD

I didn't explain that well- it was after our BBB appointment. We were late to BBB so they let others go ahead of us (rightly so) which meant we got done later than expected. Our plan (and what we did) was to leave BBB and go straight to Askershus in Epcot. I assume we took another taxi from DD to Epcot but my memory sucks.

I don't recall how early it was- we aren't morning people so reservations before 10am are tricky for my family. :-)

Take a taxi. We tried the bus for an early morning BBB at Downtown Disney from Port Orleans- French Quarter and ended up being late (even with a cast member there assuring us we would be fine). We got bumped back the schedule and ended up running thru Epcot to make our breakfast reservations on time.

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TCD, I think I read he was a computer guy- systems or programming or something. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Oh.  Amazing.

 

Is there an article or something about this guy?

 

I looked at the YouTube comments-I guess this was build back in 2006. I wonder how it has held up?

 

TCD

I may have read it when his website was online. I'm not sure.

Looks like here's an interview with him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAPB3KtqNmw

And, here is a site that captured the info from the old website (sans pictures, unfortunately):

http://www.doityourselfrv.com/ultimate-diy-rv-project-custom/

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TCD, I think I read he was a computer guy- systems or programming or something.

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I've seen that before. Gives me hope of one day building out my dream mini-camper:

http://www.learntorv.com/2014/05/camper-design-sleep-6-under-20.html

:)

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I totally agree with everything said here, but it all depends on your budget. A new 3/4 - 1 ton truck with a crew cab can set you back anywhere from mid 50s to over 100k. And if your going to go to that size of truck you would be absolutely stupid to get a gas engine over a Diesel. With used for the similar truck over a 2010 in good shape and decent miles will still run you in the 30s. But, you may be the person who does not mind driving a late 90s or early 2000 and could care less about high miles, a decent price truck may exist.

I don't disagree that budget constraints are a real decision. But, given the weight being carried- a 1/2-ton is going to be grossly overloaded. Then you're looking at 3/4- vs. 1-ton trucks and the price differential is going to marginal. The payload differences between them, though, is usually significant.

Lone-star, thanks for giving real weight numbers. I was mostly guessing- it's nice reading that I wasn't too far off. :)

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I agree with Lone-Star. The first limit you'll bump up against is the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) or essentially what the truck is rated to "carry". This number includes the weight of the truck, all passengers, the dog, the golf cart, the hitch, anything else you add onto the truck (bed cover, running boards, spray-in liner, all that jazz), AND the tongue weight of your camper (usually about 13% of the total camper weight). As you can imagine, that number adds up pretty quick.

1/2-ton trucks run anywhere from 1,100 pounds to 2,800 pounds (at both extremes with most falling at or under 2,000 pounds). There is a sticker on the doorjamb telling you what that specific truck's ratings are. It is a sticker called the "tire loading capacity" and is worded such as "the weight of occupants and cargo must not exceed XX lbs." (Note, the 150 pound driver is NOT included in this number like "tow ratings" have.)

Most 3/4-ton trucks have a bit more, but you get a healthy jump when you go up to a 1-ton truck.

I don't know much/anything about golf carts, but is guess it is safe to assume they're anywhere from 500-1,200 pounds. Figure the average adult is 180 lbs. and who knows how much your dog weighs. :)

Now, one argument against 1-ton trucks is that they don't ride as nice as smaller trucks. Personally, we don't mind our 1-ton 4x4 dually. I don't think you need that much truck, but it definitely means you won't run out of payload until the biggest of campers (I have 4,000+ pounds of cargo carrying capacity).

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For those that end up using it- the valet had no problems with our dually. And, had I read the back of the ticket they gave me- I would have found out that you can text them when you're on your way for your vehicle and they'll have it ready for you when you arrive.

Thanks for the recommendation. We still might use them. We have to return to Baltimore every six months for now, and the foreseeable future. So we might just actually camp there for some of these

I live just south of Baltimore and I've frequented Hopkins a fair amount, feel free to reach out to me if you need anything.

Continuing this hijack... What do you think of PA Dutch? I asked about it on the "good/bad/ugly Thousand Trails" Facebook group and it got a lot of thumbs down- especially saying it is not big rig friendly. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Yes it's true, it is tight we drove thru last year but no worse then places we have been this year. I check in on a Sunday so hope that helps, will let you know. I mean after the 800 loop this year I think I can get the rig in almost anywhere.

There aren't many campgrounds that scare me EXCEPT Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Gardeners, PA. It's my lifelong/childhood love and I'm too chicken-snot to take my camper there.

Sea Pines in NJ has a couple of real right turns. I got partially hung up with a post and a tree one day there. Made it out without damage, so I'm still calling it a win.

With these first come, first serve TT places, I like to drop the camper in the parking lot and drive around without it. We started that at the Williamsburg Outdoor World at their recommendation (good thing too- there were some turns we would have gotten stuck at).

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Any of you going to the Hershey RV show?

 

We will be at the Hershey show, camping at Pa Dutch then, also going to try to meet up with ceemike..Mike & Judy there on what they called old geezer day :rofl2:. But I usually get the multi day pass to go more then once and see some seminars also.

Continuing this hijack... What do you think of PA Dutch? I asked about it on the "good/bad/ugly Thousand Trails" Facebook group and it got a lot of thumbs down- especially saying it is not big rig friendly.

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Another tip of the hat to J&D. We enjoyed it there:

http://www.learntorv.com/2014/01/j-campground-catawissa-pa.html

The only bad thing with a zone pass is you can make reservations less days out then most people so for Orlando after Christmas might be tough to get, but I think you will also get discounts or special offers at Encore parks also so that might help.

Wow, this is REALLY good to know. They are not really forthcoming with restrictions or how far out you can reserve. The whole point would be that for what it costs to get a site at Christmas, I could pay for zone pass for a year. But if I can't even get in at Christmas, I'm not sure why I would do it. Our biggest "problem" is that Texas is do dang big and we live right smack in the middle, so it is really a 5-8 hour drive to just get out of the darn state! It really limits weekend getaways.

We went over Christmas 2012 and found that the campground wasn't overly busy. I think we can make reservations at 60 days (just to show the memberships are really different). I'm under the impression that it gets real busy once you get into January.

My TT membership is really why we'll rarely end up at the Fort. It's just hard to beat the price of pre-paid. :)

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We spent a week at Lake Magic this summer ($135/week). Decent place and nice pools. There was something about the laundry rooms that my wife didn't like- maybe number of washers. She definitely didn't like the 1-way roads; she said it took forever to get from our site to the laundry room. :)

Traffic was bad- especially with the construction.

We did the helicopter tour with the place just outside the campground. That was pretty neat.

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I've stayed at the Thousand Trails campground in Clermont. As the crow flies, it isn't far away- but by road and with traffic, we expect 1/2-hour+.

The price is super hard to beat - free* - since we're already Thousand Trails members. * because we have yearly dues but get to use other TT parks and the cost is spread across all of my TT nights.

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We did this in July. Yes, you can walk into Artists Point. And no they didn't look at us all that strange when daughter laid on the floor in order to see better. There may have been 2 or 3 other folks in there at the time.

I generally prefer a size 10 hook (and use 10-14 for trout fishing). I also completely agree with smashing the barbs down. I've done catch and release exclusively for years- it really helps to not tear up the fish so much.

Thanks!

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This person must really like WDW Transportation. I wonder how long it took them?

It's an excellent plan if you're not doing the parks but want to get the Disney feel.

 

"We did a side trip to DTD one year and did the following...

Took a bus to WL,

boat to CR,

Monorail to TTC,

Monorail look around Epcot

and then back to TTC.

Quick stop at Poly for a Dole Whip,

boat to MK dock,

bus to Port Orleans

and then boat back to DTD."

Sadlly, I'm not hip on Disney abbreviations (lost on "WL" and "CR"). But, this last trip to Orlando- we did a few non-park things (hotels and restaurants, but no actual days in the park), so we did similar things to this. Lots of Monorail time as my 2 year old was infatuated with it and various boat rides to catch fireworks or whatnot different places.

So, totally makes sense to me. :)

Agreed on the night vision thing at Animal Kingdom Lodge, that was really neat.

The Monorail to/from Epcot goes pretty deep into the park so you can check it out.

We drove to one hotel and then used Disney transportation to get to others.

We were total scuff laws- my daughter put her feet into a few pools!

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