Taking the plunge!

[beausoleil]

My wife and I pick up our new Leprechaun 319MB this Friday. We're new to RVing, after spending the last 20 years sailing, including 6 years cruising the east coast and the Caribbean. We still have our sailboat, but will also spend some time seeing the US.

Having owned two sailboats since 1998, I'm familiar with the systems on board, but still have a lot to learn. I'll want to install solar charging, and to also upgrade the coach 12V system. First thing will be to add a Raspberry Pi-based media system and upgrade the TV antenna to something with a little more gain.

I'll poke around the forums and see what others have done and are doing!

 

[Mole]

Welcome aboard. You'll find a lot of parallels between the two worlds. Interested in hearing about your upgrades.

 

[snakebitten]

I gotta ask.....

So, which has more elbow room? The boat or the RV?



I think many of the sail boaters understood the "tiny house" format long ago. They're naturals!

 

[lcv800]

Welcome aboard! Having been both a boater (In fact just bought a 2017 Key West we're picking up in Florida in a week!) and an RV'er, you'll find more similarities than differences. RV'ing is only slightly less expensive than boating. Fun regardless.
Rusty

 

[hddecker]

Welcome to the forum.

Hole in the road or hole in the water, doesn't matter, you just pour money into it.

 

[Handyman-DUTCH]

Welcome to the forum. We are former boaters who cruised our small houseboat for many miles.

 

[beausoleil]

I gotta ask.....

So, which has more elbow room? The boat or the RV?



I think many of the sail boaters understood the "tiny house" format long ago. They're naturals!

Well, the boat is a 51' ketch (two masts), but since it's not a breadbox with right angles, it feels like there's less room down below than the Leprechaun, but we do have an expansive deck. But I don't think lifelines around the roof of the RV would be aesthetically pleasing...

 

[snakebitten]

51'. My oh my. Regardless of the layout, that's a bit more volume than the cabin with wheels.

And as you stated, that deck is quite a porch!

Ain't life grand though?

 

[beausoleil]

FWIW, I'm quite familiar with 120/240Vac and 12/24Vdc systems. When we bought our boat (originally built in 1979), I ripped out and replaced the entire AC and DC systems - new genset, all new wiring, breaker panels, house/engine/windlass batteries, wind generator, 720W of solar, 2000W sine-wave inverter, 190A engine alternator, two backup smart battery chargers - the works. Even though I design computer networks for a living, my educational background is electrical engineering. I had to remember all that AC and DC theory, and learn battery chemistry (the boat has an 800Ah house bank comprised of four L16 6V AGM forklift batteries).

I pick up the RV tomorrow, and one of the first things I'll look into is beefing up the factory DC system... Second thing will be to install a network-based media server, and probably upgrading the factory TV antenna. Baby steps...