After finally getting the RV home the day we got possession, we’ve happily left it sitting in our yard while we worked on cleaning it up and getting it ready for use. I’ve not been looking forward to the day we have to take it out again and especially having to back it in our driveway again. Given our issues with the truck and trailer colliding when trying to back in from the driver’s side and the difficulty I had backing it in on the blind passenger side, I’ve spent time building up the ditch across the street with dirt. The hope is that with the ground built up across the street I will be able to back in on the driver-side which should make the entire process easier.
Meanwhile, for the last 6 weeks my brother and sister-in-law have been on their first big trip to the southwest in their travel trailer. I’ve been hearing the horror stories of the road as they initially struggled to drive at speed or around semi’s without completely losing control. So, I’ve been very interested and a little apprehensive to see how our rig handles. Being a fifth wheel it should handle better, but without actually trying it there’s no way to know. One of the things I’ve decided is to avoid driving in the rain or after dark as that seems to complicate matters and increase stress. The point of having the RV is to enable us to do and see things we couldn’t otherwise do and see, but not at the expense of causing stress. It should be more fun than staying home and if it’s not, then I have to ask, “Why are we doing this again?”
Saturday was the day to get the rig out and go to town to replace the rear tires and sanitize the fresh water tank in preparation for our trial run at a local state park. So I got up, and using the recommended bleach and water mixture, filled the fresh water tank and ran all the faucets until I could smell the bleach. Once done we let it sit for several hours and then hitched up and drove to town. With the ditch across the street built up I was able to drive out on the driver-side. If I can go out that way………I should be able to back in that way. That’s a good sign!
We drove to town without incident and made it to Discount Tire (saying out loud at every turn, “Wide turn, wide turn” to make sure I didn’t forget I was pulling a 40 foot trailer and end up in the ditch again). For some reason, the inside of the rear tires on the RV are very worn while the rest of the tread on those tires and the front tires are perfectly fine. I’m going to have to look into that. Anyway, we got the new tires on and drove to a nearby campground to use their hookups to dump and rinse our tanks. This finished the process of sanitizing the fresh water tank and I got to practice dumping and filling a couple of times. It really was a pretty simple process. I did confirm what I had read online, which is that it is helpful to have a clear connector at the dump valve on the RV so you can see when everything is clean. It’s also nice to have a support system to keep the dump hose secure and angled in a downward direction. I had neither, and it worked okay, but I can see why those two things would be useful and I have since purchased them.
We also discovered in this process that the rear black tank (I have two gray and two black tanks) has a significant odor problem! Yikes! While I was stuck in the bathroom continuously flushing the toilet in order to fill the black tank and taking in the amazing aroma rising from the “pit”, Charity was hiding out up front far away from the smell.
After finishing up at the campground, it was around 9:00 p.m. and getting dark. It was also raining. Oh great, the two things I wanted to avoid. At least we were only a half hour from home and backing into our own driveway and not a foreign campsite. I was actually quite surprised at how well the rig handled. We were able to drive at 55 MPH without any issues and passing semi’s didn’t seem to have any significant effect. Another thing I was interested in was how good or bad our MPG would be pulling the rig. It ended up being about what I guessed as we averaged 9.3 MPG which included some in town but mostly driving the state roads at 55 MPH.
We got home and had a better (and quicker) experience backing in the driveway this time. Even though it was after dark and the ground was wet from the rain, we had learned some things the first time. First, I immediately put the truck in 4 wheel drive before we even started backing in. Second, we were able to back in on the driver-side which made getting in the driveway a LOT easier. Third, we got better at our signals and learned that it is best if the moment the trailer starts to go the wrong direction Charity let’s me know so I can correct it before it gets so far off that I have to pull forward and try again. Using this method we backed our way up the driveway and unhitched without too much difficulty.
Overall, it was great to get out and get some experience and really turned out pretty good. We’re now looking forward to our test run to a state park.