I rented a RV for the first time to drive my wife and kids down from the east coast to Texas to see family. We will be stopping several times along the way at some jellystone RV parks. I have never been on a RV trip before and wanted to hear from some veterans on handy things to remember to bring with us. You know one of those, "Be sure not to forget this", or "life would have been easier if we remembered this" kind of things. We rented a 30 ft class C with a Ford V10.
First RV trip
- Thread starter jsharlan
- Start date
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Bobandpamlemay
Well-known member
I hope you received all of the instructions about the RV when you rented it. Nothing can be more frustrating than not knowing how to do things.....think Robin Williams in the movie RV. I presume you have all the hoses for water and sewer lines that you need as well as shore line (power cord).
As for what to bring for creature comforts, I suggest you bring whatever allows you and the kids to go through your normal days. As some campgrounds have satelite hookups, you might want to make sure you have coaxial cable to allow you to hokup. Some local TV can be problematic. Lawn chairs and a grill will help you to enjopy the outdoors. RV toilet paper is a waste. Buy single ply cheap stuff instead. I works as well. Garbage bags and laundry soap are 2 things that come to mind that we have sometime forgot. Depending on the ages of the kids, games are always go to have to kill time while driving.
As I said the list could be endless based on your lifestyle so I'd make a loist of things you use everyday and go from there.
Good Luck and enjoy.
Bob
As for what to bring for creature comforts, I suggest you bring whatever allows you and the kids to go through your normal days. As some campgrounds have satelite hookups, you might want to make sure you have coaxial cable to allow you to hokup. Some local TV can be problematic. Lawn chairs and a grill will help you to enjopy the outdoors. RV toilet paper is a waste. Buy single ply cheap stuff instead. I works as well. Garbage bags and laundry soap are 2 things that come to mind that we have sometime forgot. Depending on the ages of the kids, games are always go to have to kill time while driving.
As I said the list could be endless based on your lifestyle so I'd make a loist of things you use everyday and go from there.
Good Luck and enjoy.
Bob
Orick
Well-known member
Welcome to the forum. You'll have a ball on the trip... just take your time. You're not driving an auto.
Make sure the rental place goes through all of the hook ups with you. I'm guessing you'll get a 30 amp system so probably won't need adapters for most campgrounds but may need to be able to adapt it down to 20 amps if you're staying with family instead of at campgrounds. Then you'll have to take care to not run the a/c, microwave, etc at the same time.
Water hook ups should be straight forward but be sure you have at least 25' of hose or be prepared to use your on board water. Pay attention to the tank flushing procedure. Not rocket science but double check all connections before pulling the handle and flush the black tank first then the grey tank to clean black tank residue from the hose. Leave both handles closed while you're set up in camp. Have someone behind the coach guiding you whenever you back up.
Good luck and have fun.
Make sure the rental place goes through all of the hook ups with you. I'm guessing you'll get a 30 amp system so probably won't need adapters for most campgrounds but may need to be able to adapt it down to 20 amps if you're staying with family instead of at campgrounds. Then you'll have to take care to not run the a/c, microwave, etc at the same time.
Water hook ups should be straight forward but be sure you have at least 25' of hose or be prepared to use your on board water. Pay attention to the tank flushing procedure. Not rocket science but double check all connections before pulling the handle and flush the black tank first then the grey tank to clean black tank residue from the hose. Leave both handles closed while you're set up in camp. Have someone behind the coach guiding you whenever you back up.
Good luck and have fun.
Bobandpamlemay said:
Hey Bob, thanks for the help. I haven't actually picked up the rental yet, we do that later this month. I'm just trying to be prepared ahead of time. I watched the renters introduction video and read through the user guide cruiseamerica provided. I will be sure to check that they have supplied all the hoses. Luckily I drove out to the site and walked through their rentals ahead of time so I shouldn't get surprised with a rental in poor condition. Hopefully.
jennyjigsaw
Well-known member
Hey there,
We bought what I think you are renting! 30 ft Class C, Ford V10. Bought it on Labor Day weekend last year and have had nothing but success with it. Put about 12 000 KM on it and used all of it heavily, considering we're a family of 4.
I agree on the toilet paper thing, and we are also one of those families that don't put chemicals in our toilet, but I think Cruise America provides these chemicals, so it wouldn't really matter if you used them or not, but we don't find them necessary. Go through the "manual" with a fine toothed comb. Make sure when you get to the campground and hook up to electric, that your fridge is now using the electric and not the propane which it has been using while you are driving, or you can use up propane needlessly. I say put the fridge on auto and it will switch, but my husband manually puts it back and forth b/c he doesn't trust it (
). The water heater uses propane also, so only turn it on when you need to have a shower or do dishes (takes about 20 min to fully heat up to enjoyable shower level). The shower is short (!!) just fyi. My husband is 6', and grins and bears it.
Just also know that the sensors telling you when your tanks are full are not always reliable, as they may have something obstructing them or whatever. They are somewhat useful, though. You will get to know by the sound of your flush, or if your shower is not draining (!) whether you are nearing time to empty your tanks or if it's urgent or what. I bet we have the exact same sized tanks, and I think our grey tank fills after about 2 showers and 2 sets of dishes being done. Of course, as mentioned before, drain the black first and then the grey, and take a hose that you don't care about from home and use that to clean out the sewer hose after use or the smell in that compartment can get nasty. Be gentle with the hose, as any leaks or cracks can cause you a world of hurt.
We don't take a tv with us, so I can't comment there. I would take an electric frying pan, as there are only 3 burners and they are relatively close together. The microwave, if it's like mine, is a dream! It's also a convection oven, and I made my husband a birthday cake in there last year! Oh and one thing I couldn't live without is my non-skid fabric that I got from the dollar store (you can buy in rolls). I use it everywhere! Under coffee maker, plates, cans, books... The kitchen seats tend to slide out sometimes and so I even put some under there. Garbage bags, ditto, and a little garbage can, or do what I do sometimes and use a carabiner hanging off the towel rack in front of the stove and hang your bag on that. I also concur about a/c and micro at the same time. Just don't do it.
Hope this helps! We were in Jasper National Park this past weekend (near Banff) and could not BELIEVE the amount of Cruise America and Cruise Canada Class Cs out there! It was astounding! They aren't the fanciest things, but they work for us!
Janina
We bought what I think you are renting! 30 ft Class C, Ford V10. Bought it on Labor Day weekend last year and have had nothing but success with it. Put about 12 000 KM on it and used all of it heavily, considering we're a family of 4.
I agree on the toilet paper thing, and we are also one of those families that don't put chemicals in our toilet, but I think Cruise America provides these chemicals, so it wouldn't really matter if you used them or not, but we don't find them necessary. Go through the "manual" with a fine toothed comb. Make sure when you get to the campground and hook up to electric, that your fridge is now using the electric and not the propane which it has been using while you are driving, or you can use up propane needlessly. I say put the fridge on auto and it will switch, but my husband manually puts it back and forth b/c he doesn't trust it (
). The water heater uses propane also, so only turn it on when you need to have a shower or do dishes (takes about 20 min to fully heat up to enjoyable shower level). The shower is short (!!) just fyi. My husband is 6', and grins and bears it.Just also know that the sensors telling you when your tanks are full are not always reliable, as they may have something obstructing them or whatever. They are somewhat useful, though. You will get to know by the sound of your flush, or if your shower is not draining (!) whether you are nearing time to empty your tanks or if it's urgent or what. I bet we have the exact same sized tanks, and I think our grey tank fills after about 2 showers and 2 sets of dishes being done. Of course, as mentioned before, drain the black first and then the grey, and take a hose that you don't care about from home and use that to clean out the sewer hose after use or the smell in that compartment can get nasty. Be gentle with the hose, as any leaks or cracks can cause you a world of hurt.
We don't take a tv with us, so I can't comment there. I would take an electric frying pan, as there are only 3 burners and they are relatively close together. The microwave, if it's like mine, is a dream! It's also a convection oven, and I made my husband a birthday cake in there last year! Oh and one thing I couldn't live without is my non-skid fabric that I got from the dollar store (you can buy in rolls). I use it everywhere! Under coffee maker, plates, cans, books... The kitchen seats tend to slide out sometimes and so I even put some under there. Garbage bags, ditto, and a little garbage can, or do what I do sometimes and use a carabiner hanging off the towel rack in front of the stove and hang your bag on that. I also concur about a/c and micro at the same time. Just don't do it.
Hope this helps! We were in Jasper National Park this past weekend (near Banff) and could not BELIEVE the amount of Cruise America and Cruise Canada Class Cs out there! It was astounding! They aren't the fanciest things, but they work for us!
Janina
sew2bhappy
Well-known member
I wondered what would prompt my first post...
We just finished a trip with a CruiseAmerica 30' Class C. Our rig had about 11,000 miles on it and was considered "new". I had planned on the microwave/convection oven combo - but when we got our unit it was microwave only! The units we had looked at a few months ago came with a short ladder for getting into the bed over the cab - ours had no ladder, just step on the back of the dinette seat and up the grandchildren went. We were boondocking (dry camping) at Doran Park, Bodega Bay in California. We used the camp showers but the rest of our water use was in the RV. We needed to dump after about 3 days - easy! Because we tent camp a lot, I cooked most of our meals outside (nothing like hamburgers or chicken grilled over coals in the firepit). But we did use the RV stove for heating tea water. One thing we found out that was a minor problem....we had taken our coffee maker and toaster. Both had cords that were too short to reach the outlets. I ended up turning a small plastic box upside down to set whatever appliance we were using on.
Hope you enjoy your trip - we loved ours! Convinced us we like the RV life enough we are now about to make an offer on a 5th wheel/truck combo.
We just finished a trip with a CruiseAmerica 30' Class C. Our rig had about 11,000 miles on it and was considered "new". I had planned on the microwave/convection oven combo - but when we got our unit it was microwave only! The units we had looked at a few months ago came with a short ladder for getting into the bed over the cab - ours had no ladder, just step on the back of the dinette seat and up the grandchildren went. We were boondocking (dry camping) at Doran Park, Bodega Bay in California. We used the camp showers but the rest of our water use was in the RV. We needed to dump after about 3 days - easy! Because we tent camp a lot, I cooked most of our meals outside (nothing like hamburgers or chicken grilled over coals in the firepit). But we did use the RV stove for heating tea water. One thing we found out that was a minor problem....we had taken our coffee maker and toaster. Both had cords that were too short to reach the outlets. I ended up turning a small plastic box upside down to set whatever appliance we were using on.
Hope you enjoy your trip - we loved ours! Convinced us we like the RV life enough we are now about to make an offer on a 5th wheel/truck combo.
sew2bhappy
Well-known member
We figure it was pretty close to 8 mpg. It was a fairly close campground (about 250 miles). And computing gas mileage gets tricky when you use the same fuel tank to run the generator. One other thing to remember...these are quite a bit wider then "normal" vehicles. So when on narrow roads watch out for bicycles and hikers
