Mod to the house for the Jayco

DebKen-JAY

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2015
Posts
327
Location
Western Pennsylvania
We put French drains in this month (and I do mean "we" as we could not afford the cheapest estimate) and that involved a trench near the driveway. My husband is now going to put up our own little electric box and water hookup at the edge of the driveway where we park our Jayco 19RD. The pole for it will go into the trench so that it sticks out enough to accommodate the box and water hookup. We also extended the driveway, which is gravel, to make a little more room for our camper. We feel fortunate that we are able to keep our camper at home, especially after reading some of the storage costs, and this will make things even better!
 
It is nice to be able to have the tt at home.

Just make sure to follow the building codes.

A friend has a french drain too, some places allow it, and some do not.
 
I've been keeping the trailer at home since my first. Installing the 30A power really helped. Fresh water and tapping into the septic is planned.


I keep my trailer 'hot' all camping season. Fresh water tank cycled, fridge running. Camp Driveway gets visited several days a week. And sorely missed once the cover goes on just before first frost.
 
It is nice to be able to have the tt at home.

Just make sure to follow the building codes.

A friend has a french drain too, some places allow it, and some do not.
We live in an area where I don't think they are too fussy about what happens on your own property. It is an older home (much older!). We do not live by water, but we do live at the bottom of a hill. After several years of flooding due to heavy rain, it needed to be done. The sewer system in our town is very old and inadequate. Two years ago our cellar flooded so badly that our neighbors lost expensive furnaces, hot water heaters, washers, dryers, and valuable memorabilia. We managed to make it home in time to plug our drains and start pumping the water out the windows. My husband called the sewer authority and went back and forth with them for a year before they agreed to pay to have a backflow valve installed in our cellar. We had some cracks in our walls that my husband had been repairing over the years so the French drains needed to be done. I think if anyone would have stopped during our project my husband would have set them straight! Several of our neighbors created a petition after a flood back in June (we were fortunate because of the backflow valve) to get the city to do SOMETHING about the situation. The lowest estimate we received was $15,000.00. We did ourselves for under $5,000.00.
 
It is great to be fortunate enough to keep your unit in your own yard. I have been able to do this all my camping life. I just hate city life so out in the country for me. I have my own little two acres of bliss, have up an RV building and my own utilities for my unit, and also 1 other out back for hunting season. 58 degrees this morning has my trigger finger itching all ready!
 
Being able to store it home is the bomb. We've been able to do this with 4 trailers over the past 23 years. It's great to go in any time to stock it, get something out of it, clean it, open it up and air it out, what ever we need to do.

As said above, be careful with building codes. You say "I don't think they are too fussy". But you don't know for sure. When they come for inspections and/or property assessments is not the time to find out you violated code.
 
So jealous- I keep mine in covered storage 10 miles away for $98 per month during summer, then enclosed storage 2 hours away for $200 per month in winter. I could only dream of keeping it at home again!
 

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