Learning the RV
For this post, I’m just going to jot down some random notes about my experience so far.
Securing Stuff
Securing everything is a must because when you slam on your brakes or hit a deep bump, things will fly around. I have a checklist for “things to do before driving off” from the RV Sales Center, but it only covers about half of what I need to do. Even if you think everything is fine, you have to go back and re-check. My biggest lessons were checking the windows and vents were closed, the TV was pushed far enough back into its recess to not pop out, storing heavier items in lower cabinets so they could shift around without popping open, and quadruple checking the spaces to make sure you didn’t leave a case of sparkling water on a bench to hit the floor when you slammed on your brakes.
Along with that, securing pets. Much like a car, you’ve got to have them tethered/tied down. Both Spot and Jack think the RV is another house, and they will wander around miserably on tethers while you’re driving, and try to escape. They’re sneaky like that. I had one aborted trip where I turned around and went home to get Jack’s harness because he wiggled out of his tethered collar. After that, I tightened down their harnesses and tethers so they could be miserable without wandering too far. Poor little guys.
PS: Spot (cat) is a road trip cat, and does not do cat carriers. He’s fine with being tied down on a leash/harness like a dog in a car. It’s his thing.
Driving & Parking
Let’s begin at the beginning. I said before this was much like driving a moving truck. And it is. But not really. But kinda.
After a few easy test drives, I learned a few things:
I must have a wide gap between me and the car in front of me to allow time to hit the brakes. I knew this going in, but it really is no joke. The other day I was cut off by some impatient jerk, who then hit his brakes, and I slammed on mine. Fortunately, I had enough time to stop. It was a scare. That guy was about 3 feet from being smooshed. The RV doesn’t stop on a dime, and the more crap you have in it, the slower it stops.
Wind is another thing. Usually, you can barrel along in a car and not notice it. In an RV everything is pronounced. Even a small gust of wind will hit your RV and shift you wildly. What that happens, I slow down, get control of the vehicle, and slowly increase speed until I am sure I can correct a sudden gust without sliding out of my lane. I also learned to be mindful of the wind direction when it’s particularly bad. If you are in the right lane and the wind is coming from the right, go to the left lane. That way if you get slammed with an unexpected gust of wind, you’ll just go left further and not take out the poor humans in the lane next to you. If I can’t do that, I try to drive as far into the wind direction as I can so I have space to shift over if I get blasted.
Parking is another joy. It took me a lot of tries to understand the swing radius of the RV. It’s enormous. In my first practice attempts, I’d aim to park in a space and wind up in the next one over. I eventually figured it out with a few youtube videos and entirely too much time in an empty parking lot practicing. The upside of that is, when I parked my RV for the first time at a resort, the guide said I did it like a pro. I nailed the spot perfectly.
Don’t ask me about backing into spots yet. I’m still mostly failing at it.
So Many Buttons
After I mostly got the hang of driving the RV, I started to really look at all the living space features. I have a Class C RV, so I got two bags of manuals. Some of them were for the Ford chassis/engine/driving area. The rest were for the RV itself. I’ve had this RV for about 3 weeks now, and I’ve poked, prodded, and pushed buttons. I know most people kind of wing it with manuals, but RV systems are super complex. So what you think would logically work, won’t.
Let’s take my fridge as a prime example. I knew I had to pre-cool it before my trip (that’s another rabbit hole of checklist items). It has an “auto” setting, which you would assume means you just put it on auto and it draws on the marine batteries until you turn on the gas. That’s a huge nope. Figuring out why it was flashing in my face sent me down a rabbit hole of figuring out the DC (battery) vs AC (plugged in/generator/battery with inverter) vs gas. The short of it for me was: if you want the fridge to cool down without the RV running the generator or gas, you need to switch on the inverter to convert the DC battery power to AC so the fridge can use it. And if you run it on gas, you don’t want to drive with the propane tank turned on, so you have to know to shut that off, hit the switch to power the RV module, and let the engine and RV batteries power it. And if you’re parked and don’t want to run gas or drain your batteries, you have to run the generator to supply the AC voltage. Suffice it to say, this is not the only appliance I learned this fact about.
Half the time I have had my nose in a manual reading what power source the appliance/plug/light fixture accepted so I could determine what buttons to smash to make it go (and if it was reasonable to do it).
The Funny Stuff
I do have some amusing stories from my learning experiences with this enormous vehicle.
My auto-retractable steps have a switch: when parked, they can remain extended or automatically retract when the door shuts. I got lazy while loading the RV with the million things I bought, so I set them to not retract. The dealer told me they would retract if I put the RV into drive. The thing is, they do retract, but way slower than you think. That lesson included tearing up some grass on the lawn and taking out a sprinkler. I heard the thunk and knew what I did. Since then, I keep them on auto-retract. I did not turn on that button until my first overnight trip.
When you see signs like “trucks use left lane”, don’t be Nita. USE THE LEFT LANE. Gardnerville/Minden has those signs posted on each end of the towns, and I saw them but didn’t really pay much attention. Well, about my third trip out I took my RV down Main street and was schooled on why that sign exists. Trees. TREES. Holy crap. You think it’s not a big deal until you start hearing the branches scrape along the top of the rig. I was lucky and it was only a few low hanging branches, and nothing was damaged. But the scraping alone scared the crap out of me. Since then, I drive in the left lane when told to and screw the people trying to speed by.
My RV came with a fancy navigation system, which has yet another set of buttons I’ve not fully sorted out. By the time I hit this particular trip, I managed to get my phone hooked up to it, and my music playing, and was cruising along to WalMart for a test drive. Heading out that direction, there’s this typical Nevada small town speed limit area where it changes from 25mph to 35mph to 45mph to 55mph. So I’m driving along, happily increasing speed, and suddenly my music shuts off and this loud male voice announces: YOU ARE OVER THE SPEED LIMIT. Totally threw me. After my music resumed, I calmed down and tried to figure out what was yelling at me. Thought it was the navigation, so I pushed 5 miles over the speed limit, and Navigation Guy shut off my music and schooled me again. I learned two things on that day: My navigation system will tell you if you are 5mph over the speed limit. Loudly. It also approximates the locations of those limits and will yell at you if it thinks you are wrong (even if you’re right). The only reason I haven’t shut it off is I figured it would be useful for my eventual trip, where I’ll be going through areas I’m not familiar with. Still, screw that guy. He scared the bejeesus out of me.
I’m not done yet
So that wraps up my first few weeks of learning. At present, I’m sitting in an RV resort on My First Trip™. That blog is ongoing and will be pushed out after I’ve gone through all the relevant mishaps and adventures.