Need advice- new to RVing

[Chamuquin]

I need some advice. My wife & I have never owned or even spent a night in an RV. We have bought a Raptor 395LEV & fell in love with it as soon as we saw it. We have been paying rent for the past 7 years and were tired of it. We have calculated the expenses and will both keep our jobs for now. But we will be staying in the toyhauler full time. I have about 5 months before we move, need advice about whether or not to invest in LP dryer, AGM batteries w/solar panels, upgrading to LED's and if anyone has re-plumbed the black & grey tanks w/ a bypass so as to not use the tanks when available. Any advice would be appreciated & welcomed.

[Festus2]

First, welcome to the forum. I can't comment on some of your concerns but unless you plan on boondocking or dry camping, installing solar panels may not be a wise investment at this time. They are primarily used in dry camping situations and if you going to be hooked up to electricity most of the time, I would spend that money on some other acquisition. When you have spent some time camping and you find that you want to look into dry camping, then I would consider solar panels at that time.

The same could be said for LED lights --- a very wise investment if dry camping. If you are not venturing out into campsite with no hookups then having LED lights wouldn't matter that much. They don't cost much - if you shop wisely - and in the long run may be worthwhile considering.

I think you should determine what you camping style might look like. If you have no interest in dry camping and want all the comforts of home and want to make full use of all the features of your RV (microwave, TV, hairdryers, etc.) then some of the things you mentioned may not be necessary.
You might also want to look into a generator ----- having one will enable you to dry camp and yet take advantage of many of the items - small appliances, TV, A/C, etc. depending, of course, on the size of the generator.

Hope this helps a bit.