[RVNewb]

Howdy!


We’re back! Thank you so much for the awesome, helpful answers, everyone! I didn’t take time to respond from a smartphone during the trip, but I was reading your responses from time to time while we were traveling. Now that I’m back I want to let ya’ll know how it went. Also in case future readers are finding this page by performing an online search for one of the same questions I asked, I’ll detail here what worked for us. In many cases, it was the answers on this forum that made all the difference!


ITINERARY First off, driving 4,100 miles in 24 nights (we came back a day early due to the heat wave), with 5 kids onboard, was just way too much driving. For better planning I should probably have just picked about 4 or 5 really good destinations, and planned to stay at least nights in each one of them. I’d avoid trying to cross nearly the whole country and back in so short a journey.


DRIVING TIMES I found that every Google Map estimate of driving times was highly inaccurate for us given our slow speed in an RV. We were in a 30 ft, Class C motorhome going up and down winding mountain roads, and sometimes struggling against very high wind gusts on the Central Plains. It was my first time driving an RV, plus, with 5 kids onboard, we had frequent stops. Just a “quick” lunch from a fast food restaurant would hold us up for an hour, sometimes 2 hours. One time we set out on a “5 hour” journey and it took 11 and a half hours. Every time I pulled over so someone could use the restroom (without danger of falling over while they were walking around in the moving RV), that turned into a 15 minute stop. Then we’d stop for gas literally 10 minutes later. On another example day, a 3 hour journey took 6 hours. Eventually we just started doubling all GPS estimates, and that turned out to be pretty accurate. By the end of the trip I was pretty tired and focused on getting home (and I was much more comfortable driving the rig), so I did the speed limit (rather than 10 or more miles under it) and on days like that, a 3 hour journey would only take us about 4 hours, with stops for gas or something to eat. But my advice for someone new to driving an RV is that if you want to travel, say, only 4 hours per day, then plan your route using GPS driving time estimates that show 2 hours per day.


SPACE It is inadvisable to try to cram two teenagers into the top (twin) bunk or onto the (roughly a twin) fold-down couch/futon. They fought and elbowed one another incessantly and it was a real pain point for the entire trip. If I had it to do over again, I’d probably pack a tent and insist on the older boys sleeping outside every night. But then again, with this summer’s heatwave (100+ degree heat on multiple days in June 2022), that would not have been practicable on several nights of our trip. We didn’t have enough room for 7 people in a 30 footer, so there is no way we would have pulled it off with a 24 footer. Also, if you’re thinking of putting a teenager into a dinette fold-down bed, use a tap measure on it and then on the teenager. The person I was planning to put into that bed is 3 inches longer than the bed space, and the bed space is enclosed by plywood on both ends, so just having the feet hang off the end is impossible. Oh, the master bedroom had a similar problem: there is a supposedly “queen size” bed there, but, it is about 5 inches shorter than the queen size bed we have at home, meaning my feet hung off the bed all night.


NEWBIE MISTAKES If it helps, make yourself a little sign for the inside of the sewer panel door on the outside of the rig. When you squat down to mess with the septic system and open the access door, on the inside of that door there is now a hand-written message that I added in sharpie: CLOSE ALL VALVES BEFORE UNPLUGGING CAP OR REMOVING HOSES! After dumping a gallon of grey water on the ground at 3 separate campsites, I finally made myself that big note. I almost added “DUMBIE” to the end of it. Also, make yourself a paper checklist: Arrival Checklist, and Departure Checklist, and use it, every time.

Regarding my pre-trip questions, here’s how that worked out:

1. RESERVATIONS. If trying for a same-day site, many places won’t take a “reservation” but consider all same-day arrivals to be “FF” (first come, first serve). If you don’t have a reservation and it’s a summer weekend, try calling and asking if they had any cancellations or no-shows. If that fails, try lesser-known parks (Army Corps of Engineers parks) or just boondocking for one night. I ended up spending 1 or more hours every day trying to figure out (and reserve) a spot for the next day. We found a lot of very, very full campgrounds - especially among the national parks and state parks, which often book well in advance. Weekdays were easier but reservations were the only way to get into some places, on weekends.
2. ELECTRICITY FOR BOONDOCKING. This depends on where you are, but yes, if I was starting the night with a full tank of gas, I could have probably run the AC most of the night. I never needed to try it because we only boondocked in the more northerly states where it was quite chilly with the AC off and the windows just barely cracked a little. In Wyoming I had to run the heat (the furnace) for a while.
3. POWER FOR FRIDGE. My info online was that my model of fridge/RV did not have a propane backup, but it turns out it does. So my fridge ran at all times. There was also a selector button so I could instruct the fridge which type of power to use (the button is on the fridge, but only visible when both the fridge and freezer door are opened simultaneously). My kind just switched automatically (I assume) as I never gave it any instructions. I had to make sure to check my propane level every 2 to 3 days since we did a lot of driving which meant a lot of time with the fridge operating off of propane (I think).
4. WATER. I was worried we’d run out but we never did, even once, because we discovered the kitchen tap water was pink; there was a sticker about “food safe” anti-freeze being in the tank (yum!), so we only used it for washing dishes or brushing teeth, or very rarely, for showering inside the RV. I also flushed the fresh water tank about 2 days into the trip until it started running mostly clear. It remained cloudy for the entire trip (not pink anymore, but never clear either, just a greyish cloudy color) so none of us ever filled up a glass with it and just drank it. We went through numerous cases of bottled water during the trip (plus soda, gatorade, juice, etc.) and mostyl avoided cooking things that require water (like rice, pasta, etc.). Flushing the toilet took surprisingly little water (you get numerous flushes per gallon of fresh water...perhaps 10? 15? I don’t know). We limited how much water we used (and how much black water space we used) by putting most toilet paper (if it wasn’t for a #2) into a small trash bin near the toilet rather than flushing it. Also, newbs: be sure everyone gets into the habit of flushing, every time. There is a risk that the pot will fill with urine then slosh out on some mountain road or some particularly bad pothole, if kids are all taking turns using it on a driving day. In our model we could click the panel button to turn on the water pump, and then the bathroom sink, toilet, and kitchen sink would all have water provided via battery power, even with the generator off, while driving. On our trip we used the bathhouses whenever available, and only our youngest and my wife used the RV toilet with any regularity. The rest of us would use it for a 2am bathroom trip, or if we were in motion. It would take at least 2 to 3 days for the black tank to fill up. I actually never saw it hit full during the trip because I dumped it when it was 2/3 full and we were changing sites (although the instructions say to only dump when full). After a few days, my sensor never indicated empty again; it always says 1/3 full now, even though I added an orange bacteria packet after every black water dump (or did so within 3 to 12 hours – as soon as I could remember I was supposed to do that step).
5. NOT FULL HOOKUP? Not a problem! By far, the most important thing for us was electric. If there is a showerhouse, then electric only was just fine. Electric and water, and we were golden. Full hook up was barely more convenient that E/W with a dump station near the campground. When the dump station is 7 miles away in the wrong direction, that’s a bit of a hassle. Also full hookup is way, way more important for stays of more than 2 nights. A 1-night stay can be totally fine with just electric, if you arrive with empty or 1/3 grey, empty or 1/3 black, and full fresh water. I never once had to move the RV just because a grey or black water tank was getting too full.
6. NO TOAD (NO TOWED CAR). This was extremely inconvenient at times but also convenient in other ways. We could not go up the road to the summit of Scott’s Bluff (no RVs allowed). We could not explore two of the cool mountain roads in Custer State Park (low tunnels, no RVs allowed). We had to plan ahead so that we never had to unhook the RV just to drive out to a grocery store or swim beach. We had to organize our days around an arrival at a campground being the only/final arrival. The benefits were: an overall shorter vehicle (30 foot rather than 30 plus the toad), meaning we fit into way more campsites than a larger rig (making it easier to find a place to camp in general), being able to be done driving for the day once we arrived somewhere, getting to walk more (if we had a car, sometimes we would’ve used that for getting to a swim beach or distant bathhouse), etc. At one point I took an enjoyable 2-mile roundtrip walk to a park office, to extend our stay at the campground in person and pay the fee. When exploring any town or city (which we really didn’t do much of, since we had no toad), we had to be very mindful about parking, and about the incline on the driveways of the entrances (would we scrape bottom?, etc.). I sometimes had to park half a block from the restaurant I wanted to visit, then hike back to get takeout, then hike back to deliver it to the Rv. If I had it to do over again, I still would not bring a toad.
7. ABANDONING CAMPSITES. I was concerned that if I loaded up the RV and drove away, someone else would occupy our empty campsite while we were sightseeing. After about the first week, I never drove away once I was hooked up anyway. I did bring an “occupied” sign and used it, but as others mentioned, the campgrounds generally have a marker on the post to show which sites are occupied vs unoccupied.
8. PROPANE. I left with “90” out of 100 showing (pounds, I guess??). After the first 3 weeks or so we were at 20, and the needle was wobbling wildly. I got it filled up to 55 for $16 at a Love’s truck stop. This involved about 30 minutes of waiting. The employee did it for me while I watched. Love’s also had septic dumps available for $10 a pop.
9. SEWAGE CLEANLINESS. I did find a few dump stations that were wet. It looked like someone had an accident somehow, like they had closed the trap, then spilled some water (or used clean-up water) that couldn’t get down the trap. In both cases, it was at a spot where two dump stations were available, and I was able to pull forward to a clean(ish) dry one. Generally I still consider the entire area to be at least potentially contaminated with e-coli and other fresh bacteria from fresh sewage, so I got in the habit of using my “septic shoes.” I had a pair of boots behind the driver’s seat that I only used when using a public dump station (like at a park entrance). Before I got back into the rig, I’d switch to my tennis shoes. This was probably overkill but I was traveling with a toddler who eats off the floor every chance she gets.

Thanks so very much to everyone who responded on this forum. Your help was greatly appreciated! Happy travels!