Bighorn 3575el as summer home, not moving anytime soon

[SNOKING]

In another thread I talk about our roofed 2017 Bighorn 3575el, and was asked for more details. The trailer made to round trips from Washington to the East Valley of Phoenix. We built a custom park model with an Arizona Room at the park in Gold Canyon in 2017. The trailer went back South that winter as we had a planned trip to Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in October 2017. In the summer of 2018 we were debating leaving the Bighorn in the NW, and just driving down to Arizona in the RAM truck. I told DW if we left the two year old Bighorn in our summer membership park for the winter I wanted to roof it. Rules state that roofs are allow, however they must be supported by the RV. So we hired a guy in the park to roof it for us, as at my age I did not want to work up there after building a new shed on our second lot the summer before.


This year we decided that it was time to roof our entry porch as the gap between the two Bighorn awnings had the entry area in front of the door always wet when it rained. Yes it does rain in the land of green trees.

Our two lots are across the road from each other. So the side with the Bighorn has a She Shed and the other lot has a Man Cave shed. As we thought about having a lot of my RC airplane stuff in the truck also with other personal belongings and stay in Motels in the fall and spring was we commuted back and forth to area, and the security issues involved around that, we decided to buy a small bumper pull as a commuter. With a second lot we had a place to store it, and use it as a guest house. In Arizona we have to put it in storage.

As part of the porch project I placed 6 concrete block supports to the Bighorn near the 6 point leveling legs, as the new roof was going to extend under the overhang of the trailers roof.

So picture time.

Chris

- - - Updated - - -



Az park model.

 

[Garypowell]

Looks really nice. We now have our rig up on blocks and it has worked great.

 

[SNOKING]

A little more about the Az park model. People then to wonder around and then some settle in at some point. Our first year at this park was the winter of 2008-2009. We have returned each year except one when I was going through the yacht club chairs. Most of those years were in our 29' Cardinal 5th wheel. The BH3575el was there the winter of 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. We purchase the Bighorn in May of 2016 on our way home from Arizona. That summer DW sold our waterfront home in Shelter Bay Community, in La Conner, Wa to a lady in the next chair at a beauty salon. So we were full timing in the Bighorn at this point. We had picked up the model that we wanted in the fall(2016) and it took them all winter to get around to starting and finishing the construction. We only had possession for a few weeks before heading back north for the summer May 1st 2017. We were on a site one over and behind the park model as it was being built. So all winter and into spring we could watch out the back window the progress as it was built.

It is 875 sq ft two bathrooms, the one in the Az room addition has the side by side washer and dryer. The park model it self was made for having a AZ room addition, as it has a large kitchen, large master bath and large bedroom, with no real "living" space. There is a bonus room with a side fold queen size murphy bed and I made in the parks wood shop the first fall (2017) with a hardware kit from Rockler. When the bed is up it is the computer room. The bonus room has a slider to the rear 7x9 deck and there are "back door" stairs off this deck.

Living room is around 14'x18', man cave is 9'x12' with storage loft, and there is a 5.5'x6' on the back corner at ground level.

Some more pictures. The first picture is from the day we picked out the part that comes on wheels! It was sitting in one of our sister parks in Mesa. If the theater seats look familiar they are the original set from the Bighorn that had the heat elements fail. And we decided the removing the center console from the Bighorn and moving the table over 5" inches would give us more room on both sides. Picture #8 includes our RAM truck and the BH as we were packing things up to head North. We ran heavy with both the truck boxes full and the trailers storage maxed out pretty well at a combined weight of 24,500 pounds. The SRW 3500 2015 RAM 4x4 handled it fine within is ratings.

Chris

 

[SNOKING]

Keeping with the intent of this sub forum, Darlene and I love the snowbird park life style. If you are bored it is your own fault as there are so many things to do. Our winter park has a paved oval RC race track where a bunch of us race 1/10 Scale electric trucks. I fly model airplanes, I am a monitor in the wood shop one morning a week, and maintain the safety training data base for the wood shop. Park, until Covid, had 3 outdoor happy hour each week with live bands, dances in the ballroom on weekends, stage shows, pickle ball, tennis, all kinds of craft rooms and activities, baseball teams, 4 dog parks, golf cart parades, on and on!

Years ago I asked my parents why they were in Yuma of all places for the winters, and they said they went back each year to see and be with the friends they met the first winter. Chris

 

[TravelTiger]

Chris, thanks for sharing, very informative!


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[DonnaHamilton]

What's up it's me, I am also visiting this website daily, this website is really pleasant and the viewers are really sharing good thoughts.

 

[ParkIt]

Great update, thanks for posting!
I am curious where you found the lots in WA, there are only a few places I can think of where you can buy the lot and roof it out with a deck and shed. PM if you have a moment?
Yuma is getting to be the destination place for winter, 2 friends have lots they bought in the last couple of years and putting park models on them. They can hardly wait to get back down there for the same and different reasons you mentioned.