NY to FL and back with the Papp Family!!

My Father is down in Punta Gorda, FL and is on home dialysis 7 days a week for the rest of his life and can no longer leave his house overnight.... He has only met my older daughter twice and has never met my younger daughter.....He is 78 and not in the greatest of health, so if he was ever going to see both of his granddaughters, I was going to have to bring them to him....soon.

We decided on Thursday 3/17/16 to get the 5th wheel out of storage, open it up, load it with everything we could think of, and hit the road early the next morning.... We had just purchased the 5th wheel and had never used it yet. We loaded the camper for 6 hours, checked the water system, hot water heater, furnace, AC, stove/oven, tires, jacks, etc etc....everything checked out so we did it...hit the road at 4:45am the following morning.

This is the log of our trip and I am very happy to share it with all of you!! Enjoy!

I don't see the log unless I'm missing something.

Day 1: Neversink, NY to Natural Bridge, VA (454 Miles)
Campground: Natural Bridge KOA

Rene T said:

I don't see the log unless I'm missing something.

Click to expand...

I'm in the middle of posting it...hahah....there will be a post for each day of the journey. 

Day 2: Natural Bridge, VA to Yemassee, SC (438 Miles)
Campground: Point South KOA

Days 3, 4, & 5: Yemassee, SC to Punta Gorda, FL (469 Miles)
Campground: Alligator Park

We finally reached our destination.... My Father lives in an over 55 mobile home community which has an RV park...we were able to park a few lots down from his house and be his neighbors for a few days.

He was extremely happy that we made the trip down.... it meant a lot to him.....He was a 40+ year RVer so he was very happy and proud to see I am doing the whole RV thing with my family.

....and of course we took a day trip to Disney!!

It looks like on your way down off I-81, you took I-77 then I-26 to I-95. You went through a lot of mountains going that way.  I started taking another route with less mountains. When heading north on I-95, go as far as Richmond VA and just before Richmond, take Rte. 288 (Exit 62 on I-95) which will take you to I-64 and this will take you to I-81. There are still some mountains but a lot less. 

I have to ask, did you take a second vehicle with you? 

Days 6 & 7: Punta Gorda, FL to Kingsland, GA
Campground: Jacksonville North/St. Mary's KOA

This is when things got rough for a while.... it was the driving day from hell when our 5 hour trip took 8 hours.... tons of traffic on I-75...accident took a couple hours to clear....

When we finally pulled into the campground, I saw I had a flat tire on the 5er...

I did come prepared for tire problems.... I brought a floor jack, planks, breaker bar, sockets, air compressor, etc...

I got 5 of the lugs off and the 6th was very hard to come off..... turns out the RV dealer I bought the 5er from had to put 4 new rims and tires on it before they could sell it to me..... somebody cross threaded one of the lugs so bad that it made the stud spin with the lug nut stuck on it...couldn't get the rim off....Raar!

Luckily, I had a drill with 2 batteries and a charger and an entire drill bit set with me..... I started drilling until that nut broke in half and came off....Finally!! Get the wheel off, put it in the Jeep to go to the tire shop and notice another flat tire, on the other side of the 5er!!

The 2nd rim came off easily and I brought them to the tire shop up the road..... they checked the tires for leaks, removed the tires from the rims and re-mounted them to make sure they were sealed and put new valve stems..... good to go right? I pick them up, they didn't even charge me, and by the time I got back to the campground, both tires were flat again!!!! RAAR!

I filled them with air again and finally found them both leaking out of the rim itself...air blowing right out of the metal nowhere near the tire or valve stem....If this happened to 2 of the rims in 1 day, the other 2 rims were ticking time bombs.... I still had over 1000 miles to get home.... No games, I found a trailer supply store and ordered 4 heavy duty rims for the 5er.....they came in the next morning and when comparing them to the rims the dealer put on my camper, they were twice as thick and heavy.....

The rims the dealer put on could only handle a combined 11,200lbs.... my 5er's GVWR is 11,280lbs!!! The new rims I got from the trailer supply store can handle a combined 14,000lbs.....much better for my camper.

So after spending over $450 for the rims and having my tires swapped onto them, I put all 4 new rims on after 2 trips to the tire shop...I took 2 wheels off the 5er at a time and got the tires swapped.....

In the meantime, we were stranded in GA for an extra day and we loved the KOA we were at so it wasn't that bad....We made the most of it...playground time, swimming in the pool, bike riding, and enjoyed some great local BBQ.....also filled up both propane tanks as we saw colder weather forecasted as we got further north.... (Dealer never filled the tanks like they were supposed to either.... left me high and dry with 1 empty tank and the other with less than half in it.)

Rene T said:

It looks like on your way down off I-81, you took I-77 then I-26 to I-95. You went through a lot of mountains going that way.  I started taking another route with less mountains. When heading north on I-95, go as far as Richmond VA and just before Richmond, take Rte. 288 (Exit 62 on I-95) which will take you to I-64 and this will take you to I-81. There are still some mountains but a lot less. 

I have to ask, did you take a second vehicle with you?

Click to expand...

Yes you are exactly right....I-81 to I-77 to I-26 to I-95 to I-295 to I-10 to RT. 301 to I-75

I didn't mind the mountains because my truck is a Diesel beast so those Blue Ridge Mountains were an easy cruise.

We surely did bring a 2nd vehicle..... I was in the truck with my 2 dogs, and the wife and kids were following in our Jeep Liberty..... I never unhooked the truck from the 5er once during the whole 2800 mile trip.....my wife followed closely and was quick to shoot out into the fast lane to make sure I could move over when I needed to.... The Liberty got an astonishing 22MPG with 4 inch lift and Duratrac tires.... she worked that draft well... I did the same behind big rigs when I could.

Day 8: Kingsland, GA to Ft. Mill SC
Campground: Charlotte/Ft. Mill KOA

I don't even have a pic from this campground.... we got out of the last campground late so didn't arrive until very late at night..... luckily they had a level concrete pad to park on so I didn't even put the stabilizers down.... we were back on the road at 8am the next morning.

Oh, I didn't know you also had 2 dogs. Big family huh? I take it you are home now. Hopefully you didn't have anymore issues. Did the blown tires do any damage?  Are you aware that most ST trailer tires are rated for no more than 65 MPH. It might also be worth to get a TPMS (Tire,pressuring monitoring system).

Day 9: Ft. Mill, SC to Harrisonburg, VA
Campground: Harrisonburg/Shenandoah Valley KOA

This campground was pretty sweet....we arrived as they opened for check in and got to sleep in as out next leg of the trip was only going to be a 3 hr drive.

Day 10: Harrisonburg, VA to Hershey, PA
Campground: Jonestown KOA

The last stop on our journey.... 3.5 hours from home!

Day 11: Hershey PA to Neversink, NY....HOME!!
Campground: Our Driveway!!

We made it home safe and sound.... There were many highlights on this trip.... only the rim situation and some of the travel days were rough.... once camp was set up, all the stresses of the road melted away.... campfires and beer helped greatly!

Thanks for viewing my trip log...hope you enjoyed!