Intro from the Blue Ridge of VA-99 Excella 30

[Silver Otter]

Linda and I just brought home a 1999 Excella 30 ft. Queen Rear BR. We are first time AS owners and working to learn the culture and community. We live in Central VA. We are planning a short shakedown soon, a medium trip to Wisconsin in late April, and a big trip to British Columbia in June.

As with all newbies, we have hundreds of questions, one of which is "should the AC work when on propane only?"

[Charlie]

Welcome to the Airstream family. Sounds like you have a fun summer ahead.
The answer to your first question is no. The AC (Air Conditioner) works on 110V AC only. So you will have to be plugged into shore power at a campground or some place similar. At some point if you want to run the AC elsewhere you will need a generator/inverter. The normal recommendation would be a 3500 watt or higher rated.
Next question.

[LawChick]

Welcome! You will love the Excella.

[Silver Otter]

@ Carol: We do love it already. It must be a bit like yours, eh? Any tips, hints, guidance, suggestions for a quality AS experience?

[au_ee]

Welcome to ASs. Just a suggestion, if you buy a generator spend the extra money and get a good quality inverter type such as the ones sold by Honda or Yamaha. They are quiet and with the inverter technology will be safe for electrical circuits in computers, etc. Also, you won't piss off your neighbors. Nothing worse than a generator that sounds like a chainsaw next to you.

[Silver Otter]

Nice suggestion about the obnoxious people without consideration of fellow campers. I'll get a good one. Am I correct that the generator/inverter is a combination in one unit?

[OB Bambi]

Yamaha Inverter EF3000iSE/B Home, information

Honda Inverter Generators

These two sites should explain it.

BTW...welcome.

Randy Bowman

[Beaker63]

gheuer,
Welcome. Let us know if you need a place to camp, we're in central Wisconsin on I39.
There are also two really nice county parks close by. I don't think you'll have to worry about having AC here in April.
Tim

[Silver Otter]

Thanks, Randy, for the links. THAT explains a lot. I'm not sure I can life a 135-155 lb. generator out of the back of my truck. Where does one KEEP the unit while in motion?

[Silver Otter]

Thanks for the offer. We've got a site a Lake Farm County Park for the weekend near Madison. For this trip those are the only days we'll be in Wisconsin. More to come in the future, I'm sure.

[NoMoSOBs]

Welcome from a fellow Virginian. Hope to see you out there sometime.

[Silver Otter]

Thanks, John, for the nice Welcome. Can you help us learn what the TAC designation means? I see you are TAC VA-16, and the folks earlier, Steve and Beth, are TAC AL-4.

[FordTruck]

You are in a BEAUTIFUL area. It's a shame the restaurant in the big house on the left on 151N closed. Hello from another couple in central VA. We're 1/2 way between Fredericksburg and Culpeper.

[Silver Otter]

Originally Posted by FordTruck

You are in a BEAUTIFUL area. It's a shame the restaurant in the big house on the left on 151N closed. Hello from another couple in central VA. We're 1/2 way between Fredericksburg and Culpeper.

Yes, it is lovely here in the Rockfish Valley. We, too, liked D'Ambolas as a good night out for Italian. One of the best additions to the Valley is the Devils Backbone down here at our end. Sounds like you folks are somewhere of Rt 3, very historic road.

[65Safari65]

Welcome to the forums! Nice to have another Central Virginian around. I find myself coming up with reasons to head in your direction so I can go to Thai Siam again. Don't leap into generator ownership- we thought we would need one for a long trip. It turned out that the truck put enough back in the battery while we were driving that we never ran low on battery power.

Brad

[waltero]

Hey ghuer, welcome.....The Shenandoah Valley Unit would like to invite you to come to our next outing, in May , down at Copper Hill....several of us live near you in Waynesboro and Stauton, if we can be of any help let us know...
waltero

[Silver Otter]

@Brad - Thanks for the caution on the generator. We'll see how she runs, although we live in the woods and wouldn't mind having one for the house, too.

[Silver Otter]

@waltero - Nice to be invited. I'm seeing Martha today for membership materials. Is the event you mention May 20-21-22 near Roanoke? I understand there is a wonderful AS only camp down there somewhere.

[FordTruck]

The AS Only CG is Highland Haven. Highland Haven
If you do a search on it, you will find may threads that talk about it. The one common factor you will see is that it is a REALLY nice place. We've been there a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Beautiful scenery, great people. everything you'd expect from a bunch of
AStreamers.

[Silver Otter]

FordTruck!
Yep, we've seen people's eye get big when they talk about Highland Haven. We look forward to going down soon. I'd like to know more about how to register with the ShenUnit for that fun time.