Title: Whoops, we did it! ;)
Tags: New Full Timer Open Range 5th Wheel Sold Everything
Blog Entry: Hello everyone! This is our very first blog, so please give us a little latitude. ;) Well we did it, we sold our house and everything that we owned that doesn't fit in our 2010 Open Range 385RLS 5th Wheel. Our rig comes in at 12800 lbs with all of our belongings, dry tanks, added washer and dryer and class III hitch. Its 38' long, 385 sqft, 4 slide outs, stackable Splenda washer and dryer, two 15,000 Carrier a/c units, 42" big screen HD TV, two grey and one black tanks and a king size bed thats actually requires king size sheets! We are pulling it with a 2009 Chevy Duramax Allison short bed truck with a 18,000 lb super-glide hitch. We (wife and I) moved out of our home on July 23 2009 and have been full timing it ever since. Our first chance to retire will come March 4th 2011. We will both be under 45 when we hit the retirement date and are so excited to get this chance while we are still on the younger side of things! Yes we will work from time to time. Even though its only been two weeks since we "moved in" we have learned a lot. We have stayed at Arcadia Lake in Edmond (2 weeks $308 stay six nights get the 7th free) and at Twin Fountains RV Park (Planning on 1 month $550) in Oklahoma City. Arcadia Lake was beautiful and quiet, but they require that you move to a new hookup every 14 days, that doesn't work very well for someone who is needing to get another 1.5 years under their belt before they can really hit the road. We have been at Twin Fountains for two nights, its right next to I-44 and 63rd Street in Oklahoma City, its rather noisy with traffic which can be expected with this location. Its a new RV park, well maintained, nice club house with a pool table, Ping-Pong table, showers, and laundromat to name a few. The staff has been great to this point. As for the Open Range 385RLS, we have really enjoyed getting to know it. It has a great look on the outside and we have gotten many positive comments about it and have even showed it to another couple that we looking to upgrade. We have had a couple of small issues with it as, from what I can read online, all new units have. The shower leaked a great deal, so we simply caulked all of the shower seams and solved that issue. We also had a slow leak in one of the tires. We removed the tire twice for repair. After two days back on the rig, the tire finally looks like it may be fixed. Luckily for us, we read some great blogs and websites for about 6 months before getting our rig so we were well prepared and not caught off guard. The day after we picked up our rig on July 4th we found a small cut in one of the leather recliners arm rests, nothing had been moved into the rig at this point. Dean's RV out of Tulsa Oklahoma has so far said we are denied on getting it replaced. Its been three weeks since its been in "review", so we will see what happens. It took Dean's RV 3 days to get approval to have our flat tire repaired, a little excessive if you ask me. I'm quickly getting a clear picture on how Dean's handles warranty and repair issues. Oh and we cant forget that they have requested pictures of everything we have had issues with, even our flat tire. I'm sure they were rather surprised to have the pics in their in-box within 10 minutes. What in the world happens to the customers who don't have access to a digital camera or the know how to make that happen??? As for my contact with the manufacturer Open Range, I have put in one email and one call and both times my questions were answered in a timely manner. I hope you are having a safe and great summer!
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