BLUF: Take an RVing course before you buy.
RV Basic courses
are a MUST have for new RVers.
I didn't know
this before I purchased my RV. If I had
taken one when I started planning for my retirement 4 years ago I might have made some different decisions. I had towed before so I thought "No
problem! Buy a 1/2 ton vehicle (Suburban
in my case), get a trailer and hit the road." Right?
Isn't that what you think?
I bought in Oct 2017 (my 60th birthday). I was going to work two more years but decided to retire 31 May 2018. Roxie (I name everything) sat in storage being prepped until I finally pulled
her out in June to take the first trip. I had driven around a church
parking lot when I first picked it up and thought "I got this!"
My first back in
campsite I take out a "hitching post" the park had between the two
back to back spaces. $30 for a new post. Oh, let me go back, my first time backing into the
storage space I pinched and sliced my electric cord in half! The storage manager rebuilt my cord so I
could get out of the driveway and get to the repair shop to have it replaced. ($50)
Second trip to the Oregon coast in August I cross the Scottsburg
bridge (Umpqua highway OR 38). It says
go slow… 25mph. Well I was down there
but the semi headed toward me wasn't. I
don't know if I swerved or it was the wash that swayed me, but I clipped the
awning on the side of the bridge and pulled it off. A kind passerby picked up the pieces I left
on the bridge and helped me cut the rest of the fabric off. I had to leave it on the side of the road
since it was too long to put anywhere (sorry highway dept). 
Third trip I get
the awning replaced while visiting in Montana by using insurance so just the deductible
($250). On the way home I pull into a Love’s station that was not built for RVs
and got my fender caught on the pump protector stanchion. Yellow streak down the side. Power switch for stabilizer gone, bumper
destroyed, hose carrier destroyed (still trying to get that damage fixed, $1500). 
I pull out of
storage for the last time in October to go to my house to pack to go full time. This is in Portland OR. I try to plan my route to avoid obstacles but
as I make a turn, I hit the curb.
Blown tire so I pull off on a side street and wait for roadside assistance...two hours later they
send someone to change a vehicle tire..not an RV tire. Then I notice that my brand-new awning was
sliced to shreds by a street sign and one of the outside speakers is missing. I get this fixed in GA while visiting my
sister and pay for it myself ($900).
Oh, the adventures
of RVing.
Sometime in there
I learned about the Escapees RV Boot Camp and RV drivers’ courses. I signed up for both courses for Feb 2019 in Congress AZ, a stop along the way to visit my sisters in GA and attend both the
FMCA Rally in Perry and RVillage Rally 2.0 in FL. I found out about and signed up for the FMCA RV Basic class
in Perry...you can never learn too much!
AND BOY DID I
LEARN. It was like a fire hose being turned on in Congress.
Who knew tires had a use by date? And it isn't just a guideline like those on canned foods, it really means something! C rating vs D rating vs E rating on tires...oh my.
Who knew tires had a use by date? And it isn't just a guideline like those on canned foods, it really means something! C rating vs D rating vs E rating on tires...oh my.
Even though they
kept saying "purge, purge, purge...get your weight under control" I
walked away with a list of 22 items I needed to add to my RV safety kit!
GVWR, GAWR, GCWR,
CCC...and I thought the military had a lot of acronyms!
I've done rewiring
in a house but never had to calculate amps, watts, volts, etc so I don't kill a
battery.
Just pull into the
sight and plug in right...NOOOO.
Level? Just so I don't fall over
when walking, right? NOOOO Refrigerator might catch on fire and destroy
everything. I installed
an attachment for the fridge that will shut it off and prevent this.
About 15 pages of
notes later...Ok now on to driving class.
How to set up the mirrors correctly. What to look for in the mirror when backing into a space, how to line up rear tires. Driving over a hill properly. GREAT info...Thanks Tim. It made me a lot more conscious about how that thing behind me reacts and even when not towing I'm now thinking about towing.
How to set up the mirrors correctly. What to look for in the mirror when backing into a space, how to line up rear tires. Driving over a hill properly. GREAT info...Thanks Tim. It made me a lot more conscious about how that thing behind me reacts and even when not towing I'm now thinking about towing.
Finally, on to the
Escapees weigh station. OOPS I'm already
overweight and haven't added the new items I need! I'd removed most of my paper craft items
from the RV before I left and put it in storage. That would have been another couple hundred
pounds! For now, shift stuff around to
get it more balanced and take it slow.
Whew time to hit
the road and digest all that information.
More adventures along the way including a grapefruit size bubble on a
trailer tire. As I stopped at a rest area a true GOOD SAMARITAN followed me in to tell me about it and saved my
bacon. The roadside service guys were
expecting a shredded tire and torn up RV which would have happened had it not
been for that guy. The importance of weight and tire rating came into play
there!
After spending a
week in my sister’s driveway purging and putting in the new items, I ordered
from Amazon to pick up at her house, I head to Perry and RV Basic. Yes, it was a lot of the same information but
new info also and the repetition helped me understand a lot of it better
(tires, weight, propane, safety).
One thing they did
at both classes was ask how many did not have an RV yet and I was surprised at
the number of people who raised their hands.
THEY are the smart ones. I was discussing this blog entry with a neighbor who also has an RV and he said they wish they had taken one before purchasing.
After the tire
issue I took their advice and purchased a Tire Pressure Monitor System. I scoured the SE to find tires that were
rated something other than C for the RV. I finally found a D rated tire (meaning it
will carry more weight, has more plys) at a commercial tire store and bought
five new tires (over $800) for the TT and put the system on them.
After purging more
at my sisters, I head to FL for Rally 2.0.
WHAT FUN!! As I leave, I get
weighed again. I swear their scales were
off (at least one of them was) since one weighed almost 500 lbs more on each
wheel than the Escapees stationary scale did. I still don’t know how good a job I did
purging since their weight was 1000 lbs more total!
I then take off across
country back to Nevada. Just west of
Clovis NM, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, my tire monitor goes off. I
watch a tire lose air. All the others
are ok. I stop on the side of the road
before it gets below 40 psi and wait 2 hours for roadside assistance. The young man is surprised that my tire isn’t
blown, shredded and/or otherwise destroyed.
He REPAIRS the tire, removing the screw I'd picked up and patching
it. I’ve never had that done on the side
of the road, but they deal mainly with big rigs and farm tractors, so he was equipped
to do it. He did not want to put the spare
on and leave me with a flat in case something else happened. I’m still running on that tire over 2000
miles later!
Alright, back to
the original question…would I do anything different in choosing my rig? Maybe.
I love my suburban and having the enclosed cargo space. I camped (slept) in my old one for years
before going RV so it is a security blanket for emergencies. Maybe I would have looked harder to find a ¾ ton. My RV isn’t the one I really, really wanted;
they had discontinued that model. But
other companies made similar models so I should have looked around more. It was shorter and lighter so maybe the ½ ton
would have been ok. The understanding of
how all the weights work together could have made a lot of difference in my
choices.
Bottom line: If you are thinking about taking up the hobby
or lifestyle of RVing take a basic course first. Not only will it pay for itself it will save
you time, money, and headaches. Take a
driving course (unless you know everything there is to know about driving and
towing! lol) and you will probably save on your insurance.
https://fmca.com/rv-education-101 (Second one I took)
https://www.escapees.com/education/rvers-boot-camp/ (First one I took)
https://www.rvbasictraining.com/ (don’t know about this one)
https://www.rvschool.com/school-locations/ (Driving school I took)
It looked like this for about 10 minutes sitting in storage!
