Hi

My wife and I are seariously considering selling our home and becomming fulltimers for a few years. We have a 1985 Silver Streak mod.3411. Any thoughts and considerations that anyone can offer would be appreciated.

Thanks, Jim

By Marcia Merrell on Thursday, October 17, 2002 - 04:09 pm:

Hey Jim,
Did you ever get any feedback on full-timing?
I am living in my '83 3411, kind of "naively", and am really enjoying it! I haven't travelled any yet, just have it on some very picturesque acreage right now. Anything ya'll hear would likely be a big help! As a female, I'm both surprised and very pleased with the amount of storage I have! Thanks!

By Al Grayson on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 05:25 am:

Head south before freezing weather!
These trailers aren't really intended to be lived in. The walls are aluminum on the outside, of course, and on the inside. At only about 2" thick there isn't much room for insulation, and as the ribs are also aluminum there is a lot of heat transfer through them.
If you do decide to live in your Streak year round, you might consider making a portable doghouse to go around the water and sewer connections to keep them from freezing.
I'm not sure 34,000 Btu (27,200 Btu output) is enough heat for real cold weather.
A cloth skirt that fastens to the lower trim rail would help by keeping cold winds out from under the trailer.
A full foam underlayment under carpet helps keep the floor from getting too cold.
Keep the cabinets and closets full of clothes and other cloth, pillows, etc., to reduce heat loss there.
Our SS has storm windows, which really help keep both heat and cold out. Windows are a major heat transfer. Also the little weep holes at the bottom of the windows are wide open to the outside. Stuff them with non-hardening putty to close them off for the winter. Our kitchen window has no storm window, and with the weep holes closed the water from condensation builds up in the window channel. I sponge it out often.
We lived in a 40' Spartan that had a 40,000 Btu Suburban furnace and we had to run the oven along with it to keep warm. North Idaho gets pretty cold! I taped the back door gap, the skin vents, and every opening I could find shut and it still got cold inside at night.
What we really needed there was a full tent, like an army surplus mess tent, to completely surround the Spartan. That would have kept the wind off, and a broom handle would have removed the snow.
Quite a lot of people in North Idaho live there year round in travel trailers.
Propane pressure drops as the temperature goes down, and I think at -40 F it goes to nothing. It won't boil any more. You have to have 10 or 11 inches pressure to make the furnace and range work right. Hope no one considers living in a trailer in that kind of cold!
There are 8 of us, 2 adults and 6 children, living in our 32' SS.
Al

By Marcia Merrell on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 12:02 pm:

I have been a year now in mine, in west Texas, and so far so good. Last winter was a cold one for us, but we (me and the animals) fared just fine with our trailer propane heater and a little Black and Decker oscillating heater from WalMart!