It isn't my Designer or a Jayco, but........

[edatlanta]

Even full timers take a break from RV'ing occasionally. This 1972 model 55' houseboat will be my home for the next week cruising on the Tennessee River.

Specifications:

55' long
approx 35,000 pounds (steel hull)
14' wide (no permits are required on the river)
sleeps 6
powered by one 115 hp Yamaha 4 stroke outboard motor
cruising speed 7 mph
75 gallons fuel capacity (it gets approx 2 miles/gallon)
200 gallons fresh water capacity
Approved marine sanitation system
one full size home style refrigerator/freezer
one microwave
6 gallon electric only water heater (with the lake we don't take many showers)
DirecTV HD (only when tied up at a dock)
32" flat screen TV
one additional refrigerator on the front deck
3 200 psi air horns on the roof (sounds like a locomotive)
two 6.5kw generators (a backup is always nice)

And for the weight police (oops wrong forum) I do not plan on towing this behind my GMC 2500HD.

[Rob_Fla]

Ed,

That looks like a lot of fun, travel safe

[tinlizzie23]

Wow - that looks really neat - I envy you ! Enjoy !

[Rustic Eagle]

Often thought about doing the same type of river trip. Take plenty of pics and let us know what it's like camping "on the water"

Bob

[edatlanta]

We arrived in Chattanooga last night about 11:00pm. TVA is replacing the lock in the Chickamauga Dam and we got caught behind a tug pushing six barges. We have lower locking priority and he got to go first. It took him 4 hours. Oh well, we all needed practice navigating the last 7 miles in the dark.

Our group consists of 6 houseboats and yes, the one I'm on does have air conditioning, 2 actually.

My original comment about having a spare generator turned out to be a good thing. Our main generator died 15 minutes into the trip. We had trouble with it last year, but thought it had been fixed. It ran perfectly under load in the manufacturers technical facility after they tweaked it. Oh well, so much for that. Our spare is working great.

We will be in Chattanooga until Wednesday afternoon, then head back upstream arriving back at the starting point Thursday afternoon.

Now why a I up so early?

[Rob_Fla]

Ed,

Sounds like you are having a great time, glad everything is working out.

[chuckworkb]

That looks like fun, especially in a group.