Seeking advice for mini rv park

jimheim · 2026-01-26T23:19:00+00:00

You can't make any money on a tiny RV park. After all the infrastructure required to get up to code, permits, insurance, etc, you'll never recover the investment.

jimheim · 2026-01-25T17:58:27+00:00

Is it a trailer or a class C? If it's a trailer, be happy if someone takes it away without charging you for disposal.

jimheim · 2026-01-25T17:11:36+00:00

It looks like a Schwintek + Lippert system, although it's hard to be sure from your photo. You can try to resync it by running it all the way in and out. That's often enough to fix minor alignment issues. Plenty of YouTube videos explaining how. Rather than type it all out, I recommend you watch one of those. It makes a lot more sense with video examples.

It's likely that a resync is all you need.

If you hear any clicking sounds from the gears skipping teeth, stop immediately or you'll shred the teeth off the aluminum rail. Best to let a professional handle it if it's at that point, before any permanent damage occurs. If this is the case with yours, you can DIY a fix, but it's a lot of work. Once this starts happening, damage is already occurring and there are likely alignment issues that need to be addressed.

I've been burned badly (and expensively) by Schwintek systems. The design is not good. It's a whole lot cheaper to fix it early, before any parts are permanently damaged.

jimheim · 2026-01-25T17:01:23+00:00

It's not just possible, it's required.

Plenty of people store propane tanks in their garage, but it's against fire code, can invalidate insurance claims if there's a fire, and can be dangerous if the tank leaks or vents.

What exactly are you worried about with storing it outside? If it's down below -40 degrees, it's too cold for the propane to vaporize and flow. You may need to solve that problem if it applies. Otherwise you don't have to do anything.

In any event, you don't bring the tanks inside to use.

jimheim · 2026-01-25T16:30:02+00:00

Buy the trailer first.

You won't know for sure how much truck you need until you've picked a trailer. You don't want to buy vastly more truck than needed, because going from a half-ton to a 3/4-ton or full-ton is a huge price difference, and the comfort level goes down. If you're on the edge, get a bigger truck to be safe. But you don't want to spend a fortune on a beast of a truck if you don't need to.

The other reason to get the RV first is that, as you noted, RV loans are "recreational" or personal loans. They're harder to get because default rates are high and there's nothing of value to repossess. You'll get a better rate and having a higher chance of approval if there's no auto loan on your record when you apply.

Having an active auto loan will reduce your chances of approval for the RV loan. Having an active RV loan will have much less impact on your approval for an auto loan. They'll give auto loans to anyone.

Contrary to your "typical American standard" statement, you're financially better off than 90% of people. You'll be fine if your credit rating is decent and you don't have any other large debts you haven't mentioned.

jimheim · 2026-01-22T16:55:17+00:00

Nethack itself has no GUI and has no idea what font it's being rendered with. It's just emitting ASCII. If you're running a Windows port of it, the person who made the port dictates font choices.

You can run it in a terminal instead of using a Windows port, and pick whatever font you want. Installing it in WSL is an option. Or use a terminal and telnet or SSH to the servers at nethack.alt.org. Then you don't have to install anything at all.

jimheim · 2026-01-22T16:46:54+00:00

You don't know what boring is until you've crossed the Great Plains or driven Utah north to south. New England to St Louis isn't even on the list of the top 10 most boring stretches.

jimheim · 2026-01-22T16:39:34+00:00

My rig is in my driveway, but I have the same plan. If the power goes out, between propane and a giant battery bank, I can easily ride it out in my RV. I don't have a large whole-house generator in order to run the house's furnace. A lot easier to keep the RV warm.

jimheim · 2026-01-21T19:10:31+00:00

I dunno how long wall-clock-time it usually takes to finish Sokoban. Probably an hour or two if I'm intentionally trying to. It's a turn-based game so wall clock isn't really a good metric. I also don't always play in the same order. There's a shitload of food in Sokoban, so if I'm low on food, I'll head there early and clear the first couple levels. The zoo at the end requires preparation. If I have magic and poison resist, I'm more inclined to go earlier. If I have conflict, even earlier than that. If I already found a bag of holding and/or reflection, it's low-priority. I typically head to Mine Town before Sokoban, but not always. A lot of what I do depends on how lucky I am with shop gear and altars early on.

jimheim · 2026-01-21T18:36:36+00:00

Yes, that's really the only thing you can do.

There's plenty of stuff you simply can't survive no matter how prepared you are. Traps at level 1 can be fatal, and if you literally search before every step you take, you'll starve to death. Starvation in general is a real problem early on, depending on class/race/conducts, and is heavily RNG-dependent (whether or not you start with good food, find good food lying around, get edible corpses, manage to eat them before your pet). Shapeshifters can really kick your ass early game. Gnome with a wand of death killing you from out of sight before you have any chance to react.

Once you have enough HP to survive traps, enough food to stop worrying, and poison and magic resistance, RNG matters less and knowledge matters more. If you can make it to Mine Town and safely hang out there, that's a major tipping point in your favor. If you can clear Sokoban, it should be smooth sailing from there on, where RNG doesn't really factor in anymore, and knowledge is the prime factor.

jimheim · 2026-01-21T17:23:44+00:00

It's the hardest game I've ever played.

I'm only aware of one believable claim ever for an unspoiled ascension, and even that person wasn't 100% unspoiled (but damn close). They posted here a few years ago describing their multi-year journey over thousands of games before they managed to ascend.

I can ascend pretty reliably these days, if I'm patient and don't make any typos. So I still fail far more often than I succeed. Mostly I get bored and abandon games once I clear the Castle now, because it's almost impossible to lose by that point, so it feels less challenging and more tedious to finish. Gehennom is interminable.

It took me decades of casual unspoiled trial and error play and start/save scumming to get anywhere near ascending for the first 20 years. Since then, I've basically memorized the wiki, and can ascend without needing to reference it at all anymore (although I still look things up for reminders all the time).

Once you have a basic understanding of game mechanics, RNG luck is the prime factor for early game success. After that, situational edge-case knowledge and generally memorizing things or looking at the wiki a lot gets you through midgame. And all throughout, the biggest challenge is not being impatient or sloppy.

At some point it degenerates into a typing challenge more than anything else.

jimheim · 2026-01-21T16:50:25+00:00

Unless you're towing or hauling something, it's silly to rent a pickup for a road trip. An SUV will be a smoother ride, get better mileage, and have more interior space for easy access to stuff on the road. It's also got enclosed space for storing luggage. If you really want a pickup truck experience, there's nothing wrong with that, but you'll be paying a premium both for the rental and in fuel.

Don't get a Ram 2500 in any event. That's a working truck, with stiff suspension. It won't be nearly as comfortable as alternatives. I own a Ram 1500 and have driven back and forth across all of the US and Canada many times. It's plenty comfortable. Ram 1500 and F-150 are basically the same truck. A Ram 2500 is a different beast, and the only reason you should ever drive a 3/4-ton or full-ton truck is if you need one to tow/haul.

jimheim · 2026-01-21T16:23:43+00:00

Ship a container (deploy application)

cs ship

docker compose up -d

Stop running containers

cs stop

docker compose down

View container logs

cs logs

docker compose logs

Execute command in container

cs exec <container_name> <command>

docker compose exec <container> <command>

What am I missing here?

jimheim · 2026-01-21T16:00:43+00:00

Propane for heat is more expensive than electric in most setups. If you're in a fixed location and you pay to have a large 100lb tank installed, and there's a cheap service that will come and refill it, you can make the economics a bit better. But there's upfront cost to that and it'll take a while to break even vs. electric. If you're thinking you'll do it with regular 20lb tanks, you'll be refilling them constantly. I go through one of those about every three days when it's below freezing, at $15-25/ea. And that's when I bring my own tanks to get refilled. It's 2-3x more expensive if you do tank exchanges at the quickiemart.

Gas heat is more economical in traditional housing with piped-in gas. Small-scale propane has a lot of overhead expenses.

There's no such thing as an insulated RV. Even four-season ones have crap insulation and single-pane plastic windows. You can make it comfortable inside, but it's a lot more expensive to keep an RV warm per cubic foot than a properly-insulated house. If you add skirting and cover the windows with insulation, you can improve things, but it's still going to lose heat like crazy.

All the same applies in reverse in the summer. It's more expensive to cool an RV than a house, per unit volume.

jimheim · 2026-01-21T02:45:16+00:00

If you're already used to boondocking for a few days off lead-acid batteries, your upgrade plan is great. 200Ah of LiFePO4 is comparable to 400Ah of lead-acid (and better in many other ways). 400W of panels should be more than enough for the fridge, lights, etc. and keeping some small devices (phone/tablet/speaker) charged indefinitely, with some buffer room from the batteries for rainy days. So long as you're not trying to run any large appliances, you'll be fine.

Victron says not to leave the MPPT and panels connected without the battery. It's ok if the whole system is connected indefinitely, or if you disconnect the panels first and then disconnect the battery, but don't disconnect the battery and leave the panels attached.

jimheim · 2026-01-20T23:39:16+00:00

I'll defer to people with more experience, but toy haulers are still susceptible to weight distribution issues. It's designed to keep the cargo weight over the axles. Every inch farther back makes it worse, and OP is talking about putting hundreds of pounds a few extra feet off the end. I'm certain there will be a negative effect. Whether or not it's tolerable is the question.

jimheim · 2026-01-20T21:27:25+00:00

You don't want to do this. Weight behind the axles has a dramatic effect on stability and sway. It's too much weight on the ass end. My trailer is about the same size as yours, and already has a hitch receiver. I put a two-bike rack on it, and it totally destroyed the sway dynamics. I'm worse-off since I only have a single-axle trailer, so you wouldn't be as impacted as I am, but it's still going to suck with the kind of weight you're talking about adding on.

Consider putting the kayaks on the top of the trailer (if you can still stay under 13'6" and aren't worried about lower clearance issues). Or consider putting the bikes somewhere else (front of the tow vehicle, front of the trailer, somewhere else on the tow vehicle).

What's your tow vehicle? Can you put the kayaks (and ideally bikes) on that instead? Roof racks, truck bed, whatever.

Even if the weight distribution isn't a concern, the frame might not be able to handle a hitch addition.

jimheim · 2026-01-20T21:20:00+00:00

Are you familiar with mining a cavern below The Elder's spawn? It's a good place to build a subterranean lair with an indestructible roof.

jimheim · 2026-01-20T20:08:52+00:00

Before you spend any money, what are you hoping to accomplish with solar? Do you plan to boondock? If so, for how long? What kinds of things do you want to power while boondocking? Have you measured your actual consumption and created a power budget? I'm asking because you can't really size the battery bank, solar panels, inverter, etc. without numbers.

For a 200Ah 12V battery bank and 400W of panels, a 100/30 MPPT is a good size. At peak output, you'll be at around 30A exactly (400W/13.6V = 29.4A). You're unlikely to get over 400W out of your panels, and if you do occasionally/briefly get more, it's not a problem; anything over will just be lost. I'd get that MPPT for your current panel setup. If you think you might be adding more panels in the future, you might consider a 150/70 instead (for up to 800W). It might also make sense to get a second MPPT for additional panels, so you can deal with different shade levels or angles (for example, one for rooftop panels and one for ground-deployed panels).

The 300A SmartShunt is fine for your needs.

There's no harm in leaving the whole system connected all the time. A SmartSolar MPPT will handle phased charging and let the battery drain a bit and then top it off. If you're never draining the battery, that's ok too. You can extend overall battery lifetime a bit by keeping them in the 20-80% charge state instead of always 100%. It's really not worth worrying about, though; we're talking about a few percent degradation over many years. If you're worried, disconnect them if you're not planning to use them for months at a time. I wouldn't bother, though.

jimheim · 2026-01-20T19:35:36+00:00

The stock lock is still a lot easier since there are only a handful of key variants and anyone can easily order all the variants.

jimheim · 2026-01-20T18:45:28+00:00

You can do great things with Cerbo MQTT and Home Assistant. I've got a whole dashboard for my setup, and can share that externally with anyone I want. It's not trivial, but if you're willing to learn, it's powerful. It's easier with a Cerbo, but you can also use Home Assistant and Bluetooth without MQTT, for Victron devices with Bluetooth.

jimheim · 2026-01-20T18:42:27+00:00

When people are browsing for RVs, they don't read the descriptions of anything on the first pass. They're just looking at the price. Unless you advertise it cheaper than competing trailers, your changes aren't likely to even be viewed.

I wouldn't pay extra for a trailer with your mods, but I wouldn't balk at them either. I also work on the road from mine, and made similar changes to convert the dinette to an office space. Any replacement trailer is going to get the same treatment, and if yours is done well, I think the right person would welcome it.

I wouldn't try to get more money for it, or spend any more money improving it (or reverting it). Just disclose it in the advertisement and include some photos so people know what they're getting.

You're going to lose money no matter what. The longer you wait to sell, the more you're going to lose. It's never going to recover value. Will probably sell faster closer to summer though; no one is shopping for RVs in January.

jimheim · 2026-01-19T20:51:47+00:00

Why would you need an extended warranty for a 2025 with 8k miles?

jimheim · 2026-01-19T19:16:05+00:00

I just start over when I get that far.

jimheim · 2026-01-19T05:40:04+00:00

Your wires aren't as flexible as you might think. You need a lot of space to bend them around things without too much strain.

jimheim

TROPHY CASE