Coming to an LTVA Near You!

What’s coming to an LTVA near you? Well, several things but first for those of you who don’t know what an LTVA is…… It is a Long Term Visitor Area; BLM land that offers long term camping. Before we went fulltime we had no idea what an LTVA was but we quickly relied on them as one of our main camping locations in the winter. 


Some are free, some come with a fee. We typically buy the multi month permit for $180 which is good for multiple LTVA’s as you travel around. Shorter term 14 day permits can be purchased for $40.


You can get information on BLM campgrounds at their BLM Website.


So what is coming to an LTVA near you? In just a few short weeks we are! We are headed to Quartzsite Arizona for a much needed break. Our favorite LTVA down there is La Posa South mainly because that is where all of our friends stay but we also like the fact that it has fresh water and a dump station. 


When we bought our rig in 2014 we did so specifically with boondocking in mind. Which is why we equipped it with 900 watts of solar as well as dual pane windows and the arctic package. We run everything we need on the solar except run the air conditioner and fireplace. We also carry (2) Honda 2000 generators in case we need to run the AC or it is cloudy for multiple days but we have found that we rarely use them. 

We also made another huge decision in the past week! 

We had originally planned on taking our Lance pick up camper on this journey but since we listed our Cardinal 5^th wheel for sale we thought this would be the perfect place to show it off to like-minded RV’ers and hopefully sell it.  


The dilemma was that we wanted to bring our Ranger UTV with us as well as there are so many good trails down there. We had a couple of choices…. 

1. Drive the 5^th wheel down from South Dakota (19 hours/1300 miles) to Quartzsite Arizona drop it off and turn around and go get the UTV. Seems ridiculous but we were seriously considering it.  
2. Drive the 5^th wheel and the Jeep pulling the trailer with the Ranger.
3. Not bring the 5^th wheel, just take the camper and pull the trailer with the Ranger in it. 
4. Forget the Ranger altogether and just take the 5^th wheel and try to sell it.

After talking (or listening) with Barb is quickly became apparent that the Ranger was coming one way or another. So option #4 was out. 


We had taken the Jeep/Ranger combo unit in the past with a smaller Ranger and trailer so that was an option. But a quick test drive on the roads in the Black Hills showed that that was not really feasible. Just not enough power to pull the bigger Ranger/Trailer set up so option #2 was out. 


We also decided that we really wanted to bring the 5^th wheel as there is probably no better place to sell a set up like ours. So that eliminated option #3.


That left only option #1; Drive the 5^th wheel down from South Dakota, drop it off and turn around and go get the UTV. Ugh! I really did not want to do that! That would be 2,600 additional miles, almost 40 additional hours and about $1,000 in extra fuel.


That’s when we came up with option #5. Tow the Ranger/trailer behind the 5^th wheel! Crazy I know but we have seen lots of people do it. A quick check of the states we would be going through showed that it was legal plus it accomplishes everything we want. Problem is our hitch on the 5^th wheel is not big enough. Well, $500 later and a visit from a custom welding shop in Custer and we are ready to double tow saving us both time and money!

We will take it slow and easy and I am sure it will be fine. Plus, with luck it will only be one way. We plan on getting flyers made, posting them on the LTVA bulletin boards as well as others throughout town. If anyone has additional suggestions let us know and if you know anyone looking for an awesome rig give them this link and send them to La Posa South! We are very motivated sellers!


On the home front, we are still plugging away on getting things buttoned up. 

The insulation is all done and we are working on the vapor barrier. For anyone wondering putting a 20'x30' sheet of plastic on the ceiling is not a 2 person job, but we got it done!

Barb hiding behind the ladder

Me getting frustrated 

The soffit took a back seat while we tried to wrap up the insulation but I have about 1/2 of it done. 


And the heat? They said they would be back this week to finish up. Today is Friday and they called this morning to say they would be out tomorrow, we shall see!


I have a really cute trail cam picture to share …. Plus I got a deer! (warning dead deer picture below really cute bunny picture!)

Hopefully the sausage will be done in time for the happy hours in Quartzsite!