Skipper
Well-known member
How many of you worry too much about things that could happen to your MH during a trip (that you try to prevent); and over think, over plan, and try to keep a travel schedule?
Over Thinking/PlanningTravel Survey
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Tom
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Other than that one trip, we've almost always tossed a coin in the morning to see if we go or stay; If it says go, we stick a pin in a map (remember those?) and head in that general direction. This worked escpecially well for the 10,000 miles maiden voyage on our current coach.
I probably over-think the prep stuff, but not the trip planning. In 30+ years of RVing, I think we've planned routes/schedules once - at the insistence of two couples we'd be travelling with. Nothing on that trip followed the plan or schedule and stuff we intended to see/do.
Other than that one trip, we've almost always tossed a coin in the morning to see if we go or stay; If it says go, we stick a pin in a map (remember those?) and head in that general direction. This worked escpecially well for the 10,000 miles maiden voyage on our current coach.
Martian
Well-known member
We have a towable and not a mh but it would still be a valid question. I do the planning and upkeep on the tt and I cannot say I ever left on a trip with a piece of equipment that I had concerns about. If something has an issue I have it fixed. If, with all the upkeep and repairs done, something goes bad while on the road it gets fixed, bypassed or replaced. I do not waste time worrying. I am more concerned about the reservations made. A couple of trips ago we pulled into a cg that we had reserved over six months prior expecting a fhu. Nope, w&e only as an Airstream group booked all the fhu's four months after my res. was made. I was not about to stay two weeks with no sewer connection. They also did not have a dump station. Things like that concern me.
Kirk
Well-known member
As far as worry about what might happen, that was never a problem until we sold the house and made our motorhome our only home. We mitigated that by buying one of the more expensive but all encompassing "extended warranty" or service insurance policies. It paid everything asked of it just as it should have but like most such policies it didn't save us money but did prevent sleepless nights. We kept that on the motorhome for the first 10 years on the road but discontinued it once we were of an age that our IRA funds were accessible as a backup for an emergency. For us, that was a good way to manage it.
As to planning, we did do some and we set some goals but most of this was kept flexible. We did a lot of RV volunteer situations where we did have an arrival & departure date but we would take 1 to 3 months to travel between our summer stay and our winter stay and that was quite relaxed and without an schedule or reservations. Today we do travel with reservations much of the time because busier areas have become far more difficult to find RV parks, if you don't dry camp which we no longer do.
As to planning, we did do some and we set some goals but most of this was kept flexible. We did a lot of RV volunteer situations where we did have an arrival & departure date but we would take 1 to 3 months to travel between our summer stay and our winter stay and that was quite relaxed and without an schedule or reservations. Today we do travel with reservations much of the time because busier areas have become far more difficult to find RV parks, if you don't dry camp which we no longer do.
Rob&Deryl
Well-known member
We tend to plan trips in detail. We enjoy the planning. We don’t always follow the plan but as I say, you can’t deviate from the plan if you don’t have one.
This being our first year with an rv, we worry about many things. As time has gone on (& 5800 miles) some things don’t worry us so much. New experiences cause us to do all we can to avoid issues (like Q next week) and we test out scenarios (like we ran 12v stuff on battery & solar for a week) so we are more comfortable with the plan. We have had a bunch of unexpected equipment failures since we started and have just either fixed or had fixed. We are still new at this so expect more surprises. Hopefully more pleasant than not.
This being our first year with an rv, we worry about many things. As time has gone on (& 5800 miles) some things don’t worry us so much. New experiences cause us to do all we can to avoid issues (like Q next week) and we test out scenarios (like we ran 12v stuff on battery & solar for a week) so we are more comfortable with the plan. We have had a bunch of unexpected equipment failures since we started and have just either fixed or had fixed. We are still new at this so expect more surprises. Hopefully more pleasant than not.
Isaac-1
Well-known member
I am not sure how to read that question, I do preventive maintenance, check tire pressure, fluid levels, etc. before a major trip. I do worry some about something serious breaking, engine / transmission failure on a trip, but I try not to worry too much about it as it is out of my control to a large degree.
UTTransplant
Well-known member
I was a project and program manager for almost 30 years. Scheduling and planning were my middle name. But planning is really only so you can track discrepancies, and you better have some type of approach to accommodate the inevitable difference between the plan and execution. When we were vacationers, we scheduled everything well in advance. We had simpler rigs, and the worst that could happen was a tire blowing or problem with the tow vehicle. Now we are retired with a complex motorhome, and things do occasionally happen no matter what type of preventative maintenance we do. Our last trip to Death Valley, for example, led to a cracked shaped manifold hose and problems with our base plate on the Jeep (two unrelated issues a few days apart). For that kind of reason, we identify destinations and flex the travel plans getting there. I really, really don’t want to undo a series of reservations because of some issue that arises. Being flexible on travel plans gives you many more options than being tied down every day. Then again, we travel mostly in the west and are well set up for boondocking about anywhere. We seldom have an issue in finding a place to stay. Those in the east might have different results.
Gary RV_Wizard
Site Team
There is a wide difference between considering what can go wrong and "worrying" about it. And likewise a substantial difference between having a loose plan of travel and a committed itinerary. I've always been a planner, but never felt like I was married to the plan or needed to have a detailed action predetermined for every eventuality. Typically our day's plan got made the night before, or maybe even the morning-of.
LarsMac
Well-known member
To have too much of a plan just provides a lot of opportunities for things to go wrong.
But I will sit down and develop a trip with with distances traveled per day, places to fuel, and where we would like to spend the night, and have that plan saved in the laptop. Then, start out with where the first stop is going to be.
I make reservations for the next night after I get where I was going that day.
If there is a specific destination where reservations are required, I will plan enough ahead where I may have to slow down if I have made really good time and might get there before the planned day of the reservation.
(Example: If google maps says I can be there in twelve hours, I might plan 3 days at 4 hours each. )
Currently time is the thing we have the most of.
But I will sit down and develop a trip with with distances traveled per day, places to fuel, and where we would like to spend the night, and have that plan saved in the laptop. Then, start out with where the first stop is going to be.
I make reservations for the next night after I get where I was going that day.
If there is a specific destination where reservations are required, I will plan enough ahead where I may have to slow down if I have made really good time and might get there before the planned day of the reservation.
(Example: If google maps says I can be there in twelve hours, I might plan 3 days at 4 hours each. )
Currently time is the thing we have the most of.
Kirk
Well-known member
That is a lot like how we have traveled in the past. Modify the plan at lunch is a pretty normal thing for us. And if we get up and it is raining, we have sometimes stayed another day to avoid unhooking in the rain. Recently we have done more planning with the difficulty of getting RV sites we have done more planning than in the past. Last summer we made our first trip ever with each night booked as a reservation, mostly because of the frequent reports on RV forums of how hard it is to get sites. In the course of the trip I also asked at each stop if they were full. When in the Denver area the answer was always yes but that answer was no at all of the other places that we traveled. In the future our plan is to call around at lunch when we have a better idea of where we wish to stop as we felt pretty restricted last summer.
