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Topic: Foretravel comes through again (Read 645 times) previous topic - next topic

Foretravel comes through again

One of the reasons I bought this coach was to be a backup should power go out for days, like it did in the Snowpocalypse of 2021 in Texas. Well, as you may have heard, much of Texas got hit by a ice storm this week. We managed to escape any outages for the 2 first days but this morning at 2:15ish, power went out.

When morning came, I performed a damage assessment of the property. We have many down trees and limbs, some being some rather large oak trees, which are revered in the Hill Country. Between said assessment and the electric service outage map, it became apparent that this will be a multi-day event.  Queue Morton, our FT. We moved over to it, generator powered on right away, and have been able to weather most obstacles so far. I always keep my diesel and propane tanks full when parked for this very scenario. The only thing we don't have is power to the well pump, but we have bottled water. The tanks are empty since it is winter, I use the "Chuck winterization" method.

I also moved Dishy Mcflatface from our house roof to Morton, so we have all the amenities. I bought another router and cable so when we do travel, I just bring Dishy. Cell networks are very slow due to the outages. One neighbor said she could not text another that lives 1000 feet away. I did a couple speedtests this morning and got 125/23 FWIW.

This is the worst ice storm since 2007. The event of 2021 was not ice but snow and extreme cold. There are a tremendous amount of limbs and trees down in the region. I know that the electric workers are doing the best they can. But fixing a transformer vs removing a downed tree that is on a power line require different tools, with the latter taking considerably longer to fix.

I did have a gotcha a short time ago- no 12V power. I spent 30-45 min investigating, only to search on here and flip the Salesman's Switch!  One of the dogs must have moved it while excitingly exiting.

I have multiple days of chainsaw work ahead of me. Hopefully the outage won't be too long but I bet it takes multiple days before things are restored. But we are warm, dry, with food and water. Overall, we are faring better than most thank God. Thanks for listening and hopefully your FT can do the same for you.

Jason
2000 U295 36' Non-slide  ISC350

Re: Foretravel comes through again

Reply #1 –
Go Morton!

(we didn't have our Foretravel yet, but we got to "experience" the ice storm of 1998 (I think that was the year) in CenTex and know exactly what you're describing with the trees down and power out)
Learn every day, but especially from the experiences of others. It's cheaper!  - John C. Bogle

2000 U320 36' non-slide / WildEBeest Rescue
2003 U320

Re: Foretravel comes through again

Reply #2 –
I hope power can be restored to all those how lost it and losses are held to a minimum.
The reason I decided to full time in a Foretravel was because of numerous hurricanes and lost power when I lived in South Florida.
1993 U225 Build #: 4285
500 Watts Solar
Honda CRV AWD
Former 1981 Foretravel Travco
Retired, Full Time Off Grid Snowbird

Re: Foretravel comes through again

Reply #3 –
That was one of my thoughts too when we bought our 1996 U295 in October 2020. Worse case, we have the Foretravel and I love my time in it!
Brian & Lisa Freeze
1996 U295 36FT Build #4914
Motorcade #18760

Re: Foretravel comes through again

Reply #4 –
We have used our FT for a couple outages but then we put in a generator. I now have moved and the whole house generator will not power the garage so I got a portable one for that and put in a switch so I can keep the garage warm and also the coach plugged in. 
2025 Wanderbox Outpost 32 on F600 Expedition Motorhome
2015 Born Free Royal Splendor on Ford 550 nonslide version  for sale
Former Coaches  covering. 360,000 miles
1999 34 U270
2000 36 U320
2001 42' double slide U320
2018 Jeep Rubicon

Re: Foretravel comes through again

Reply #5 –
Austin has a policy where the power company can not trim trees or trim very little.  Back around the 2007 or so in the summer they had a big storm that with branches breaking it took out the power lines.  It took them weeks to get the power back on to everyone,  On a Saturday morning one of the local stations had a power company representative. He said that Austin would not let them cut the trees and they were having to weave the replacement power lines through the trees.  He said a simple job of stringing a new line with no trees would take a few hours, but doing through the trees was taking days. We were lucky, where we were on Lake Travis we had no power outage during that time.
2014 ih45  (4th Foretravel owned)
 1997 36' U295 Sold in 2020, owned for 19 years
  U240 36' Sold to insurance company after melting in garage fire
    33' Foretravel on Dodge Chassis  Sold very long time ago
 

Re: Foretravel comes through again

Reply #6 –
Here in Ohio we learned years ago that power can go out for days - summer or winter...  I know the power has gone out when my light flicker as the whole generator kicks in... :-)

Our Foretravels do make a great back up plan - I worry about losing power when I am in my FT and not at home.  The home generator is peace of mind !
Scott Powell
Doylestown, Ohio
2002 U320 3610 WTFS