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9 Posts
I actually joined Outbackers.com in October 2013 and just check, I've had 6 posts in all these years. We purchased an Outback 298RE in 2013 and had it for 5 years and traded for a fifth wheel. I ran across an old sheet I'd tucked away with passwords on it and found this site again (actually when scanning through an old laptop computer). Surprisingly, my user ID and password is still active.
We traded our Outback in October 2018 for a fifth wheel 2019 model. So that was more than 4 years ago. The reason I'm pointing this out is because when we traded campers we used one dealership. In early January, this year, I picked up my fifth wheel after getting bearing repacked at a different dealership and when I started to pull out of the dealership repair center, I saw my old 2013 298RE sitting there in the "work completed" aisle.
At first I wasn't sure if it was REALLY my old one or not. But curiosity got the better of me. So I walked around the unit. It most definitely was. It still had my, very faded, Good Sam sticker and an American Flag sticker in the back window. The cables on the battery were not original, and when I looked at the metal support for the front steps, they still had an additional support screwed in I put in many years ago. It was a unique piece of metal as it was an old strip from a carpenter's slide T level / ruler where the bubble end and sliding T had long been gone. At the time, it was the perfect size of metal and strong enough to do what I needed to do. It was still there!
I was absolutely delighted to see the old girl. I did go back to the shop and asked what repairs the current owner had done, but they wouldn't tell me. She still looked really pretty.
The second year of my ownership, Keystone repainted the front cap it faded and splotched up. The re-paint job still looked fabulous! Absolutely perfect .... after all these years. And I also spray painted the propane tank cover with Rust-o-lium professional black spray paint. The tank cover was still absolutely fabulous looking too.
I was delighted to reunite with my old friend. She was an absolutely great camper and almost 100% trouble free (except for the fading paint on the front cap that did get fixed.)
So now, I stumbled into this forum again. I thought at best, everyone here would appreciate a long-term follow up. Since my original post, I've retired after 20 years in Christian ministries overlapping with secondary part time jobs, 6 years in the Army, and another 25 years of Information Technology starting out running a printer and ending the last 20 years as a software test engineer.
All during this time, my wife and I worked from the camper when Covid closed the physical doors of both our respective offices, and after I finally retired I did some camp hosting in a North Carolina State Park. We have been on the road for about 5 years now with short stops back at the house, and loving every minute of life and attempting to live it to the fullest.
I am now a grandfather of 7 and am extremely fortunate and blessed because my son returned home 8 years ago with his baby boy and been living with us ever since. My wife and I deeded the house over to him and he lives in the house. He is also permanently "work form home" as a software developer for a company that develops software for medical devices. So this freed us up to travel as much as we want, and we do.
My daughter returned to the main land from a 5 year stay in Hawaii. They settled down in Iowa with their 6 kids! (really). So, we haven't seen any of them very much. But, now that they are back on the main land, I think we'll be looking for campgrounds in Iowa a little more now.
Well, happy camping everyone. I'll keep reading these forums. There's still a lot in common all our campers have, regardless of what they are or who makes them. I may not contribute, but I sure do enjoy gaining as much new knowledge about the RV environment as I possibly can absorb.
We traded our Outback in October 2018 for a fifth wheel 2019 model. So that was more than 4 years ago. The reason I'm pointing this out is because when we traded campers we used one dealership. In early January, this year, I picked up my fifth wheel after getting bearing repacked at a different dealership and when I started to pull out of the dealership repair center, I saw my old 2013 298RE sitting there in the "work completed" aisle.
At first I wasn't sure if it was REALLY my old one or not. But curiosity got the better of me. So I walked around the unit. It most definitely was. It still had my, very faded, Good Sam sticker and an American Flag sticker in the back window. The cables on the battery were not original, and when I looked at the metal support for the front steps, they still had an additional support screwed in I put in many years ago. It was a unique piece of metal as it was an old strip from a carpenter's slide T level / ruler where the bubble end and sliding T had long been gone. At the time, it was the perfect size of metal and strong enough to do what I needed to do. It was still there!
I was absolutely delighted to see the old girl. I did go back to the shop and asked what repairs the current owner had done, but they wouldn't tell me. She still looked really pretty.
The second year of my ownership, Keystone repainted the front cap it faded and splotched up. The re-paint job still looked fabulous! Absolutely perfect .... after all these years. And I also spray painted the propane tank cover with Rust-o-lium professional black spray paint. The tank cover was still absolutely fabulous looking too.
I was delighted to reunite with my old friend. She was an absolutely great camper and almost 100% trouble free (except for the fading paint on the front cap that did get fixed.)
So now, I stumbled into this forum again. I thought at best, everyone here would appreciate a long-term follow up. Since my original post, I've retired after 20 years in Christian ministries overlapping with secondary part time jobs, 6 years in the Army, and another 25 years of Information Technology starting out running a printer and ending the last 20 years as a software test engineer.
All during this time, my wife and I worked from the camper when Covid closed the physical doors of both our respective offices, and after I finally retired I did some camp hosting in a North Carolina State Park. We have been on the road for about 5 years now with short stops back at the house, and loving every minute of life and attempting to live it to the fullest.
I am now a grandfather of 7 and am extremely fortunate and blessed because my son returned home 8 years ago with his baby boy and been living with us ever since. My wife and I deeded the house over to him and he lives in the house. He is also permanently "work form home" as a software developer for a company that develops software for medical devices. So this freed us up to travel as much as we want, and we do.
My daughter returned to the main land from a 5 year stay in Hawaii. They settled down in Iowa with their 6 kids! (really). So, we haven't seen any of them very much. But, now that they are back on the main land, I think we'll be looking for campgrounds in Iowa a little more now.
Well, happy camping everyone. I'll keep reading these forums. There's still a lot in common all our campers have, regardless of what they are or who makes them. I may not contribute, but I sure do enjoy gaining as much new knowledge about the RV environment as I possibly can absorb.
