Howdy. My wife Kristi and I have begun what we hope will be the count down to retirement - actually the count down will be about 6 years long - but they say the longest trip starts with the 1st step.
We took delivery of a new 3650RK in April. We have managed a couple of trips with it and like the layout very much. This is a new 4 slide unit and the extra room is really nice as we plan on being on the road 6-8 months a year once the retirement plug is finally pulled. The entire rear end is kitchen - the sink counter top runs across the back end from left to right and both the dining room and the stove/fridge walls are slides. This REALLY opens up the area! The living room and the bed also slide. It has the mock fire place/heater in the entertainment cabinet. As delivered the drro on the entertainment center for the dvd/cd/radio player opened up - what a pain as you had to hold the door open with one hand and try to operate the electronics with the other. So I flipped that door over and put the hinges at the bottom. I still have to get something to hold the door at 90 degrees.
Our tow rig is my '03 Chevy Duramax, 3/4 ton, crew, long bed 2 wheel drive. I have added the Edge power chip which I am realy pleased with, The install time was about 5 minutes to be operational - a couple of hours additional when I installled the exhaust gas temp sensor. I have what is called the 'Attitude' which is basically a control head that resides in the cab and allows me to select any of 5 factory defined boost/shift/?? levels. I have been advised not to exceep level 2 when towing. Our long trip from Spokane to Southern Minnesota and back showed that level 1 worked great. We were able to run the freeway (90 East to Minnesota and 94 West from Minneapolis) on cruse control at 65. This speed gave us 10+ miles/gallon and we were able to run approximately 95 percent of the hills without dropping out of cruse.
I have added the AMSOIL dual by-pass filter system and run AMSOIL oil in both engine and transmission. The dual system has a full flow filter along side a very fine (1 micron) by-pass filter. My oil at 7,000 miles is now a dark gold instead of a light gold.
I have plans to add a new exhaust system by next Summer.
I am also working with a local company to put together a water filtration system that will have both filtration for solids and a ultraviolet light for bacteria. The unit will be full time in-line on the trailers water system - all water in will get processed.
John & Kristi Elam
'03 Chevy 2500HD Duramax Crew LB with The Edge power chip!
'04 Montana 3650RK
** 6 yr to retire and counting **