When we first left our driveway on February 22, 2014 we thought we knew a lot about RV'ing...boy were we wrong!! We have learned a lot of lessons along the way, thankfully none them have been huge disasters. Here are some that we think you will appreciate!!
1. Towing in over 20 mph winds is never a good idea.
2. Driving more than 250 miles each day is too much for all of us. Normal driving that would be 4 hours, RV towing that is about 6. You don't realize how tired you get while towing until you do it.
3. Double check everything around the RV before pulling away. Yes folks we have left the wheel stabilizer in between the tires, forgot to pull up the jack at the front of the RV, almost forgot to move the wheel chocks. Things that could have been prevented had we double checked before we pulled away. Thankfully nothing was damaged and we always caught it very quickly.
4. Make sure your antenna is moved before lowering down or you could damage your roof, thankfully I did not :)
5. Make sure the dogs dishes are out of the way before pulling in the slide. OOPS, instead of a circular dish it is now Oval.
6. Make sure you close the door all the way. Bailey is quick to make sure we aren't leaving without her!!
7. Gusty Winds in Arizona can occur anytime even when there is no wind. We had a dust storm come through all of a sudden that almost blew our awning off and actually moved Garrett in his pack n play to the point where I thought it was going to tip over.
8. RV's are not insulated well, we purchased silver heat reflectors to put in all of the windows, vents and along the cupboard walls.
9. Cleaning the black tank doesn't just mean opening the valve, you really have to get in there. That is why this is Tim's job :) If you put ice and dawn dish soap in the black tank after emptying it and drive it will clean a lot of the gunk out.
These are just some of the lessons we have learned and thankfully none of them have been huge disasters. I'm sure we will continue to learn even more as we go along.
Today was a cleaning day for me, which took about 1/2 the day and a work day for Tim. For Garrett it was just another play day. I can clean the RV pretty good in about 3 hours. I figure we will do a Spring Cleaning of the RV at least once a year where I take the screens off and clean the windows and really give the inside a good scrub down. Much quicker than our house which would take about a week for Spring Cleaning!! Plus no more yard work, woohoo!!
1. Towing in over 20 mph winds is never a good idea.
2. Driving more than 250 miles each day is too much for all of us. Normal driving that would be 4 hours, RV towing that is about 6. You don't realize how tired you get while towing until you do it.
3. Double check everything around the RV before pulling away. Yes folks we have left the wheel stabilizer in between the tires, forgot to pull up the jack at the front of the RV, almost forgot to move the wheel chocks. Things that could have been prevented had we double checked before we pulled away. Thankfully nothing was damaged and we always caught it very quickly.
4. Make sure your antenna is moved before lowering down or you could damage your roof, thankfully I did not :)
5. Make sure the dogs dishes are out of the way before pulling in the slide. OOPS, instead of a circular dish it is now Oval.
6. Make sure you close the door all the way. Bailey is quick to make sure we aren't leaving without her!!
7. Gusty Winds in Arizona can occur anytime even when there is no wind. We had a dust storm come through all of a sudden that almost blew our awning off and actually moved Garrett in his pack n play to the point where I thought it was going to tip over.
8. RV's are not insulated well, we purchased silver heat reflectors to put in all of the windows, vents and along the cupboard walls.
9. Cleaning the black tank doesn't just mean opening the valve, you really have to get in there. That is why this is Tim's job :) If you put ice and dawn dish soap in the black tank after emptying it and drive it will clean a lot of the gunk out.
These are just some of the lessons we have learned and thankfully none of them have been huge disasters. I'm sure we will continue to learn even more as we go along.
Today was a cleaning day for me, which took about 1/2 the day and a work day for Tim. For Garrett it was just another play day. I can clean the RV pretty good in about 3 hours. I figure we will do a Spring Cleaning of the RV at least once a year where I take the screens off and clean the windows and really give the inside a good scrub down. Much quicker than our house which would take about a week for Spring Cleaning!! Plus no more yard work, woohoo!!