A Home for the RV

[Calico]

Hi friends!
The hubby and I are in the midst of building a garage for our Vegas 25.3 and aside from a dump station, hose bib, outlets and 50 amp receptacle (front and back), and a walk-out catwalk to get on the roof without using the RV's ladder, what else would you folks find necessary to include inside a garage, given your druthers? I'm looking forward to getting that Bus under roof, in an effort to save paint!
All ideas are appreciated!
Thanks!

[GVP-The Boxcar Children]

Nice! The one thing I'd do if I had the space was to add a rear door, making it a pull-thru, to simplify docking the rig.
GVP

[JamieGeek]

Wow! That is quite the garage.

From my perspective you have everything covered.

[Bob Denman]

The only thing that you should add: space for your friends!!

https://www.thorforums.com/forums/at...1&d=1595937109

[Popfla]

Long, tall and wide enough for when you move up to a 40' + rig ?

Sounds good. Orly thing I would add is a floor drain for when you wash the rig, condensation from the A/C, etc.

[ducksface]

I can think of little to add except to make sure your man door is as wide as you can afford it to be.
My 30 inch wide man door is often a fist fight and I've got to open a garage door to get simple stuff in. The colder the wind, the more there's a chance whatever I need won't fit through the Man door.
A 40 inch would be so much better.
On a prior garage I had a 10ft sliding patio door(five foot opening). I miss that.

While you're still just sticks inside:
Add three outlets everywhere you thought you wanted one outlet.
Under bench height, directly above that add one at bench height, directly above that, one at 8 feet height(or higher in your case) TV, aux lighting, battery chargers on overhead shelves, electrical trinkets on over head display shelves. The initial cost is minimal, when you wish one was up there and it is... Priceless.

Also.
Liftmaster 8500 garage door openers.
They take up no ceiling space because they work on the jackshaft and don't have that ugly center bar down the middle of the ceiling, have a usable phone app, close at preset times(I love that) and have battery backup and a wireless door and motion activated light you can put anywhere you have an outlet. They also come with an excellent electrically activated deadbolt which throws into the door upon closing and makes a satisfying clunk when it closes. The picture shows how the 8500 opener doesn't have a center rail. The entire opener is the little black box next to the top corner of the doors.
The phone app tells you when a door opens or closes and you can open the app and see the status of the doors and open and close them. Mine send me a push message on my phone whenever a door opens. I know immediately when the door starts to open.
With the 8500's and Alexa, I push a single button in the rv and the property gates open and the garage opens. I just drive right in.
I can also say
Alexa, I'm parking the rv.
And it all happens. (or did until I changed server names. I have to set up the gates again)

Put a couple of outlets in the ceiling over the rv so you won't be dragging an extension cord up on the roof. Corded tools are going the way of the typewriter, but an outlet is still really nice on the ceiling above the rv.

As you have all of that overhead space, I'd consider the powered lift racks which ceiling mount. And if I really got fancy one of the dumb waiter types going into that attic space. With either, you'll push a button and down will come a rack full of camp chairs and all of the other hard to store items.

WiFi cameras give you notice of movement, but better yet allows you to take a peek to see if you've closed the doors and turned off the lights. I've looked at mine and sometimes found I left an interior light on in the rv.
Android/echo/alexa light switches let you say
Alexa turn off all lights
From the comfort of a beach chair in Senegal or the top of the eifel tower or your own bathroom.
The audio on the cameras make an excellent intercom.
An Alexa Puck(or five) let's you do a
Drop in
Which is the same as a hands-free intercom. No putting down a tool to answer a cell phone just to find out someone is at the gate.
Pucks hook to stereo speakers allowing music and messages throughout the entire garage.
'Alexa, play billboard hits of 1973 on garage group'
and the music comes from all units you've signed up to that group.
One in The ceiling over the rv could be damn handy if someone hurt themselves up there.

Everything I've listed except the overhead racks are what I've installed, or like the door, have had in the past.

[Bob Denman]

+1 on the LiftMasters..

[Judge]

I built a 40 x 16 x 16 Pole Bldg for our Magnitude SV34. You might want to put the man door for the garage to line up with the entry door of the coach. That was my wife's idea and it works great. We can walk into the garage and then straight up the steps into the coach when we are loading an unloading.

You may also want to add an automatic door closer with the feature to hold the door open when you open it wide enough.

I have a 3 car garage and the RV bldg and use Liftmaster 8500's. They work great. I have enough Internet access for my garage an RV bldg that I can open / close the doors from my phone and get alerts if a door stays open too long. I also have them setup to automatically close after 10 minutes.

I also have a camera out in the RV bldg as well as two cameras inside the RV courtesy of the Winegard ConnecT 2 when we are on the road.

[ducksface]

I forgot about the rv cameras.
I don't have any showing the inside, but my dash cam has its own wifi circuit.
I have to log into it, but I can see the dash view inside the garage.
I have two extra blink cams sitting around. I'll put them in the rv today.

Thanks.
I hadn't thought to put the blinks in the rv.

[Calico]

Wow! Great ideas!
We have the floor drain, access doors (from the sides), Liftmaster and security cams covered. Lovin' the 'up top' storage idea, as that space is not slated for anything but storing hot air as of yet, and the extra EXTRA outlets. Walk-in space for wide and bulky items is covered by french doors in the workshops on either side. I HAD considered a rear door for pull-through access, but didn't want to lose the forest, so instead we are making the driveway a super wide U-shape for easy back-in. I do wish I had designed the RV portion a tad wider, but I believe the 12' door should allow even me to back 'er in. You never know... as age creeps up on us and IF we were to step up to a mammoth-sized rig, that back wall just might come out and the driveway may wrap around the property after all.
Thanks for all the great ideas and tech information! I'll post a 'finished' photo when completed, but here in E. Tennessee, that could take some time. :-/

[Capt.Tom]

Originally Posted by Popfla

Long, tall and wide enough for when you move up to a 40' + rig ?

Sounds good. Orly thing I would add is a floor drain for when you wash the rig, condensation from the A/C, etc.

Condensation from the A/C is the one thing that limits the usefulness of my RV garage.

[mkapala]

Wow that looks awesome! Something I've been dreaming about as well. I would want plenty of overhead lighting for inspecting the roof.

[DogLovers]

Floor drains. Powered apex vent fans for those hot days and times your on the catwalk. It will be hot up there.

[MLP]

If going through making a perfect storage area for the RV, I would have a pit area under it for easy inspection and servicing. We have a fellow RV owner in our local group that did just that for his Class A.