Hello from outside of Portland, OR! New RVers with our first travel trailer..

pnw_bomber · 08-06-2021, 11:18 AM

Hello everyone from the PNW! My wife and I had been kicking around the idea of getting a truck camper for the bed of my truck for a while, but after doing some research, finding one we'd be comfortable in and that the truck could safely haul around was looking impossible. Just for kicks I started looking at smaller travel trailers and we instantly fell in love with the Winnie Micro Minnie.

For us, owning an RV serves two purposes. We live in the forest and were one of many from this area forced to evacuate due to wildfires last year. We packed up our teenage daughter, our two dogs (one being an English Mastiff) and started calling every hotel we could, to see if we could find somewhere to evacuate to. After enduring a week of hotel living like that, we pretty much decided right then and there we needed an RV so that we could get it packed up ahead of time and leave it ready to go during fire season. Having an RV means we can stay pretty much anywhere, in our own place. Many county fairgrounds even opened their gates for RVers to evacuate to last year.

So we went to our local RV dealer, Johnson RV, in hopes of being able to see one in person. They had exactly 2 Micro Minnies on their massive lot, one had already been sold and the other was the exact floorplan we were looking for. They told us they had people coming to look at it that weekend, and they weren't sure if they were getting any more any time soon due to supply issues (yeah, I know, all sales tactics with some truth mixed in). Since for whatever reason we do best with impulse purchases, we decided to put money down to hold it right then and there. We came back to pick it up a little over a week later.

We immediately got it home, plugged it in and have been putting it through its paces, making sure we understand how everything works. I even found that we had blown the thermal fuse in the water heater somewhere between the 5 miles between the dealership and our house. Thank goodness for Amazon and easy fixes. Thank goodness for this forum that pointed me in the right direction to get that troubleshot and fixed without having to involve the dealer at all.

We hope to get out as much as possible and already have reservations made for at least one weekend for the next three months. Hope to see you out on the road, but hopefully not for evacuation reasons.

Joel

**Eagle5** · 08-06-2021, 11:52 AM

Hi Joel & Heather,
I find your logic for purchasing the Micro Minnie to be impeccable. I was in South Bend Washington during that time, and we were getting smoked-out there too; just 13 miles from the ocean. Those were bad air days, to be sure. Part of my air-quality campaign was to install Carbon Filter Fabric to the air-return of my air conditioner.
I did burn-out the ignition sensor wire to my hot water heater by leaving it switched-on while traveling, but it sounds like your issue was something else; glad you were able to repair it.
Both the Grays Harbor and Pacific County Fairs are running this year, as well as the Labor Day Celebration in South Bend. Another trip which is great with an RV is southbound 101 down the coast (all right-turns that way.) I believe you are really going to enjoy that new trailer.
Welcome to the Forum.
Eagle5

99dart · 08-07-2021, 08:23 AM

Welcome to the forum! We will be in "your-neck-of-the-woods" in two weeks. Our G-daughters is getting married somewhere near Molalla. Let's hope you don't need to use the trailer to evacuate.

pnw_bomber · 08-07-2021, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle5

Part of my air-quality campaign was to install Carbon Filter Fabric to the air-return of my air conditioner.

Great idea! I'm adding that to our ever growing list. Thanks!

pnw_bomber · 08-07-2021, 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 99dart

Our G-daughters is getting married somewhere near Molalla. Let's hope you don't need to use the trailer to evacuate.

Molalla is a very pretty location for a wedding, congrats to her! I'm also hoping we don't need to use our new RV for evacuation purposes and can just stick to the "recreation".

Thanks for the welcome!

TBoneX2 · 08-09-2021, 07:55 AM

Hi, Joel,

My husband and I are also new RV owners, also traveling with a large dog!

**Eagle5** · 08-09-2021, 11:42 AM

Hi TBoneX2,
I love your moniker! What kind of dog do you have? My dog Grace is now 110 pounds.
Welcome to the Forum.
Eagle5

NYer · 08-09-2021, 11:51 AM

We bought our first motorhome from Johnson RV in Sandy. Sales people were reallly nice and easy to work with. The service department on the other hand, had issues. They did not know the hot water heater/plumbing system came winterized. Either did we. Got to Mt Hood RV park for the first night and no hot water. Tried gas and electric for two days on the advice of the service department. Finally convinced them to send a tech out and he found the hot water heater was bypassed. We had dry fired it for two days. They replaced the hot water heater the next day.

pnw_bomber · 08-09-2021, 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TBoneX2

Hi, Joel,

My husband and I are also new RV owners, also traveling with a large dog!

I'm not sure how we're gonna do it, but we'll make it work! Lots of new RV owners lately. I think we're in the right spot.

pnw_bomber · 08-09-2021, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle5

Hi TBoneX2,
I love your moniker! What kind of dog do you have? My dog Grace is now 110 pounds.
Welcome to the Forum.
Eagle5

Thanks for the welcome Eagle! We now have 2 English Mastiffs, one 6yrs and the other a few months, and our Indian Res rescue mutt. I have a feeling it's gonna get crowded.

pnw_bomber · 08-09-2021, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYer

We bought our first motorhome from Johnson RV in Sandy. Sales people were reallly nice and easy to work with. The service department on the other hand, had issues.

I've heard this from a few others. Luckily for us they did a full walk through of every system when we came to pick it up. Our hot water heater worked just fine, until we got it home (about 5 miles away). I found some amazing posts on this site that helped me troubleshoot and found that it was the thermal cutoff that had blown for some reason, probably because it was positioned directly above the burner. A quick order from Amazon and that was fixed, but then the water heater wouldn't stay lit. Back to the forum and found that it's oxygen starved. I threw some washers under the hinge to prop the bottom of the door out a bit. That seemed to do the trick.

Not the kind of stuff you expect from a brand new trailer, but I feel like I learned a lot about a system I knew nothing about prior. It's all one big learning experience right?

pnw_bomber · 08-10-2021, 12:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pnw_bomber

Thanks for the welcome Eagle! We now have 2 English Mastiffs, one 6yrs and the other a few months, and our Indian Res rescue mutt. I have a feeling it's gonna get crowded.

Man, what a dunce. I didn't even notice that you were responding to someone else.
Wish I could edit/delete that post. .

**Eagle5** · 08-11-2021, 11:02 AM

Hi Joel & Heather,
I can see why you thought my comment was directed at you. The English Mastiff is a dog which is bigger than my M'Loot, which is to say very big! Also, this is your thread. I assumed that our new member TBoneX2 had a double-size dog of some sort. Would the Mastiff be considered a TBoneX4? (Ha-ha-ha)
Yes, we have all posted something that exceeds the 30 minute window (or whatever it is) for corrective editing. No worries, and very eager to hear how big your dogs grow-up to be.
This older thread has a picture of my dog Grace:
RVing with Pets
Thanks, Eagle5

pnw_bomber · 08-12-2021, 10:50 AM

Ahh, your Grace is a cutie! Our 6yr old English Mastiff, Dutch, is about 170lbs and our new one, Freya, is on par to be bigger than him. For reference, here's a picture of Dutch in the back seat of my truck. He loves his truck rides!

(I have no idea why the forum decided to rotate my image like that. It's definitely supposed to be vertical.)

**Eagle5** · 08-12-2021, 11:00 AM

Hi Joel & Heather,
Wow! Dutch is a very big dog. Grace is now fully grown and is "just" 110 pounds. I guess I've always liked a medium-sized dog (ha-ha-ha.) Did I mention that Dutch is very big?
Thanks, Eagle5

BobC · 08-12-2021, 05:07 PM

Welcome from a fellow USAF vet and USAF "Brat". Years ago we met a couple camping in a very small TT, 17' 0r 18'. They had a Great Pyrenees, an Aussie and a cat with them. I asked them how they did it and they answered "we have to shuffle our feet at night".

Happy shuffling. One crazy Border Collie is enough for us.

pnw_bomber · 08-13-2021, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobC

Welcome from a fellow USAF vet and USAF "Brat". Years ago we met a couple camping in a very small TT, 17' 0r 18'. They had a Great Pyrenees, an Aussie and a cat with them. I asked them how they did it and they answered "we have to shuffle our feet at night".

Happy shuffling. One crazy Border Collie is enough for us.

Haha, now that's funny. Luckily the big dogs don't like to get on the bed...that often. We'll see how they do in the RV. Good thing I'm not claustrophobic.

Thanks for your service!
Joel