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I don't know much about motorhomes: what is the bathroom/shower situation like?

Also, what's your internet configuration?




In a large motorhome, it's a lot like a bathroom/shower in a small apartment. It's not big enough to take a shower with a friend, but it's comfortable...I've visited friends apartments with less pleasant bathrooms than mine, particularly in high rent areas like SF and NYC.

I have had four different Internet solutions since moving into the motorhome:

Millenicom 3G was first. I got hit with a $1400 bill while on the border of Canada and the US (they apparently don't protect against the modem using foreign towers, and will then bill you international roaming rates).

Then switched to a Clear 3G/4G unlimited plan. Worked OK in most places. When the modem died and my Cradlepoint proved unreliable as hell with 4G connections, I switched to..

Virgin Mobile and a tiny little hotspot with a 2GB 3G/unlimited 4G plan. It's the cheapest ($35/month), and shares Sprint's network (as does Clear). Works OK. The hotspot overheats sometimes, but it reliable enough and fast enough.

I currently also have a cable modem. I've been parking in Austin, TX enough that I keep a spot permanently, paid monthly. So, I have cable internet there, which is vastly faster than any 4G service I've used. If Google fiber makes it there, I'll buy that, too. Obviously, Internet is a priority. I'm not in Austin at the moment, and so using the Virgin hotspot out in the sticks in New Mexico, and it's working OK.

There have also been times when I used my phone as a hotspot. It's on T-Mobile. They made it impossible to do on my plan about a year ago...so, I'm annoyed with T-Mobile (I'd used it as Internet backup for years; my plan didn't change, but they imposed new rules). Haven't changed yet, but may eventually change to a service like Virgin Mobile, Cricket, etc., since I rarely make phone calls. When I'm due for a new phone, I'll look into it.

Service maps are available for all of the carriers and are reasonably accurate. Sprint/Clear claims better service than they provide, T-Mobile claims less good service than they provide (but still have less coverage than Sprint). AT&T outright lies, but has broader coverage than T-Mobile. Verizon I've never had or used, but is reportedly very good...it's just outrageously expensive.

Many RV parks also have Internet, and I occasionally use lack of Internet as a motivator to get me to go out to coffee shops and be social.

It's been very rare that I couldn't get Internet somehow during my travels. I can count them on a couple of hands and I usually knew I was going off the grid for a while and could warn my company co-founder and our one employee.


If you had problems with T-Mobile blocking illicit tethering (I do), a VPN solution or even Hotspot Shield on the phone works wonders. Obviously if you use 200 GB/month this might not be sustainable, but something worth looking into for others.

Thanks for the great updates and detail!


Thanks for the info. How inconvenient is it to swap out waste and new water? How does that work in the first place?


It's not a big deal. There's a pipe with a quick connect hose on the underside of the rig...the hose goes into a pipe in the ground. There's a valve for grey and black water; you dump black, then grey. It's included in the fees of RV parks, as most have "full hookups" (which means, electric, water, sewer, and maybe cable), or you can pay $5-$10 to dump without spending the night at most RV parks with dump stations. Some cities provide RV dump stations for free to encourage tourism, and some businesses offer them for free to encourage shopping there, mostly in the west and in Canada.

It takes about ten minutes, if you're also filling up the fresh tank. My rig usually is running low on fresh water about the time my grey water tank is full, so it works out reasonably nicely. If I'm trying pretty hard to conserve water, I can go two weeks between visits to the dump station. Otherwise, I dump a little over once a week.




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