New owners of a 2002 Coachmen Santara

[Da-Mack]

Owned it for about a month now. We had our maiden voyage a couple of weeks ago. We are newbs at the RV thing so it was a learning experience. A patience experience as well. Imagine this for a first time week long trip; the wife and my self, 2 English Bulldogs, the older daughter and her 15 month old toddler. All crammed into this shoebox on wheels. 550 miles to Kansas City to see the youngest daughter and new grandkid...for 5 days! It all went pretty well despite the situation I put myself in. I managed to bring everyone home safely and not abandon any of them at a Denny's or Flying J.

We learned a lot about RVing;

I really love Velcro and Super Glue.
This site and YouTube are GREAT for learning new stuff.
Dumping and cleaning the poop tank is not that bad.
We have a very weak parking brake.
Kansas City people are freakin nuts about shooting off fireworks on July 4th.
With digital TV now, brining our Direct TV dish and tripod was a wast of space...will just leave it home next time.
The cabinet door straight across from the toilet does not have a strong enough latch to keep a hair dryer in it.
Back up cameras are a MUST!
Starbucks has no parking accommodations for RVs...so we made our own.
Cruise control is no good for even slight hills.
A $30 steering stabilizer can make your E450 drive like a new rig.
The inverter does NOT recharge the battery in the truck???? what the hell?

We're off for the next trip. Going to Georgia to see grandkid #1. This time its just the wife and I and the Bulldogs but we're going to try pulling a trailer.

 

[peteduffy]

How about some pics?  We have a 1996 Santara 350FL Class A.  Don't see too many Santaras on the road.

Congrats & enjoy.

ps.  You didn't mention duck tape, bungee cords, and about a hundred other things you'll eventually find out about.

 

[Alfa38User]

The inverter does NOT recharge the battery in the truck? what the hell?

You likely mean the CONverter and not an INVerter....

Converter: CONverts 120V to 12V when RV is plugged in and it charges the house batteries and helps run other 12V stuff
Inverter: Connects to the batteries and INVerts 12V to 120V to run small appliances like the TV, cell phone chargers etc.

This is quite normal in most RV's with the exception of many Fleetwood Products and some higher end Diesels.

There is  an aftermarket product called Trik-L-Start that can be added and do just that when the RV is plugged in. There are also some other brands available for that job.