Wife tried driving the MH this weekend

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Similar experience for us.  My wife has driven ours only just a very few miles...and we did that while on a trip and carefully selected an early morning opportunity for low traffic and no wind on a straight piece of level interstate highway.  She was freaking so bad by the time we got through the exit and to a parking lot  she was barely able to function.
To her there's extreme backlash in the steering.  It's "loose"
There's not...it actually drives very well.  its just that it's not quite as hands free as a normal nice car....needs more constant correction...drives ""like a truck".  And adding to that, it's wider so it takes less drift to get out of the lane.... It just takes more effort and concentration, that she's not used to.

My son is about to get his learners permit...as soon as he's legally able I plan to get him behind the wheel to train him to be at least an emergency backup.
 
My wife won't even sit in the driver's seat when we're parked.
 
My wife has never driven our coach either, though she has offered to try to a few times, usually at the worst possible time to try to drive a motorhome for the first time.  The last time was about 4-5 hours into the day's drive down I-40 in New Mexico on a day with 20-30 mph gusting cross winds.
 
ChasA said:
My wife won't even sit in the driver's seat when we're parked.
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Same here, so I have briefed Cyndi on our FMCA benefit that will get someone to drive it home for her if something happens to me. Certainly not ideal, but it's not a battle I'm willing to fight - mainly because I'd lose.

Kev
 
There are a LOT more women out there driving rigs all by themselves without driving classes or help from husbands, but it takes some practice to get comfortable with driving.  I am 77 years old and 5'1" tall, and i know older and shorter ladies who do just fine also.  I now have driven my rig for 144,000 miles in 8 years of full-timing, but i did it because of necessity, so I got a lot of practice fast.

I agree with Ardra that every adult person in the family has to be able to drive a motorhome or pull a trailer.  This is not just so the husband can enjoy the larger passenger seat--it is a safety issue.  There needs to be a second driver for when the first driver is overly tired or not feeling well, or has had a serious event such as emergency surgery, broken bones, heart attack, etc. 

I meet up with a lot of women who are scared to drive these things or feel somehow that this is a gender-specific skill, but I can assure you that it is NOT!!  You just have to keep trying, and the other member of the family has to avoid making too many suggestions or giving too much advice. 

I am really thankful I could drive my first couple of thousand miles without somebody overseeing me!  Yes, I had more than a few scary moments, and it took me a couple of months to stop holding my breath going over big bridges, but I survived and so did my motorhome. 
 
To follow up on Judy?s post, I am the primary driver of our rig (Pam). I prefer driving the 40? motorhome plus toad to driving the toad by itself. But I didn?t get there in an hour of practice! It took at least 500 miles before my shoulders didn?t tighten. It took 2,000 plus to get comfortable on narrow roads and overhanging trees, after 20,000 plus miles, I don?t even tense at a notice of 10? lanes. I will repeat though - it took time and hours behind the wheel. Just like when you first learned to drive at 14 or 16 or whenever, you didn?t get comfortable in the first hour. Judy had to do it, I chose to do it, but it still took time.
 
ChasA said:
My wife won't even sit in the driver's seat when we're parked.
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  Same here, my wife wont even ride in it but she is ok to drive the Tahoe behind me. That works out good since she is great at blocking traffic so I can change lanes.  I've tried to get her to just back it up but her reply is "what, are your arms broken" ...."no dear, never mine, I'll get it". 
 
I believe the biggest mistake for ANY driver is to feel they must keep up with traffic.  Let an inexperienced driver get their miles in, NOT in the big cities, but out in the stretches in between towns and if they only feel confident going 55 (while trucks are flying by), so be it.  After a very short while, the confidence will come to gradually increase that to where they don't feel like they're "sticking out like a sore thumb".  My wife is 5'2" and drives our 37' plus Ford Explorer toad with no problem at all, including up and down the Appalachian Mountains.  I am very thankful that she wants to do these things to make our trip much easier for both of us.
 
Ditto on not feeling you have to keep up with traffic.

The absolute best advice someone (another woman RV driver) once gave me is to not worry about the people behind you.  Yes, they will probably line up behind you, but that is their problem.  You MUST drive at a speed that is comfortable for you and safe.  Let the traffic pile up until you can find a safe place to let them pass. Better than having an accident with your 14,000 pound or bigger vehicle.

I drove from Ohio to California on my first big trip.  Upon hitting the California border on I-80, I hit a long construction zone.  Not only were the two lanes narrowed down to maybe 8-9' wide each, but on the left side, they had dropped the pavement height so there was this 2' high cement "wall."  On the right side was a long line of the big cement traffic dividers.  It was terrifying because it was hard to pick a very narrow lane and not hit something with the side of my tires or brand-new motorhome.  (The truckers must have known about this area because there were none at all in sight.)

So, I remembered the advice and just drove straight down the middle of the two lanes!!!  No one even honked at me, and I got off at the first exit past the construction to catch my breath and stop shaking. 

I also once drove 200 miles out of my way to avoid a steep mountain pass!  But today, I would tackle both easily, except I would still drive down the middle of those two freeway lanes.
 
JudyJB said:
Ditto on not feeling you have to keep up with traffic.
I drove from Ohio to California on my first big trip.  Upon hitting the California border on I-80, I hit a long construction zone.  Not only were the two lanes narrowed down to maybe 8-9' wide each, but on the left side, they had dropped the pavement height so there was this 2' high cement "wall."  On the right side was a long line of the big cement traffic dividers.  It was terrifying because it was hard to pick a very narrow lane and not hit something with the side of my tires or brand-new motorhome.  (The truckers must have known about this area because there were none at all in sight.)
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Speaking of dividers I would rather have the cement barriers (I think they're called Jersey Walls) than the orange and white barrels. I find them confusing especially when they are used as guides for changing lanes. The Jersey Walls are more effective in defining where the lane goes. Safety is another issue. If you hit a Jersey wall you damage your vehicle, if you hit a barrel that goes flying and could injure a road worker. I realize the barrels are cheaper and easier to move, but sometimes they are in place for a long time.
 
The problem with the orange barrels is that they sometimes move, so sometimes you find one about a foot closer to vehicles than they should be.  I still have a scuff where i hit one that had encroached into my lane a bit.  Could not avoid it.

I like those skinny, pointy orange lane markets because they take up less space and don't cause as much damage if you hit one. 
 
UTTransplant said:
If your wife wants to learn to drive, have her take a course with RVDrivingSchool.com. Great instructors all over the country. Sometimes a spouse isn't the best person to be a teacher.
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We have a 40' DP.  My wife took the course and now drives about 50% of the time.  She is still nervous, but she only has a couple of thousand miles to her credit.  One major thing we learned was how to back up properly.  Before the course, we had lots of trouble.  No she drives and I guide and we have no problems at all.  One pass and we are parked.
 
After my last post, where I explained that Cyndi won't even sit in the driver's seat when the RV is parked, I decided to take another shot at it. Yesterday, while driving through the southwestern part of Wyoming, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, with clear skies, unrestricted visibility, no vehicles in sight, on a highway that was as straight as Billy Graham, I said, "Honey, why don't you try driving for a few miles." There was a pause that was just long enough to make me wonder if she had heard me. Then, then without even glancing up from her magazine said, "No thanks."

Guess who drove to our next campground.

Kev
 
cerd said:
My wife is used to driving her Equinox, sometimes with the boat or ATV trailer behind us.

This weekend, she insisted on driving since my kid woke up at 3am. She drove for about 20 minutes on the highway. She was very confident at first, but she was white knuckle the whole time since she could finally feel the crosswinds and sway when traffic passes. She made it about 3 exits before she wanted to switch.

When I took over, she was dumbfounded and asked how I was able to drive so casually. I'm just used to it by now. When we first bought it, I knew little about how they should handle. When we bought it, I had to slow way down because it was all over the road whenever traffic passed and crosswinds would shift me. Reading this forum as well as others, I learned to adjust the tire pressures, installed a steering stabilizer, and started looking up weather conditions; which all drastically helped reduce sway and made driving the MH a much more pleasant driving experience.

The only thing I wish I could improve is stopping distance since the brake is hard to press with all of the extra weight vs a daily driver and I wish I had more power for climbing hills. The stock 1990 350 is gutless, but there isn't much to help without some major changes to the engine.
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You are braver than I am as my wife's driving style would have everything crashing about inside our RV. I can safely say she will never drive our RV
 
I was in Wyoming 10 years ago in a really desolated campground when I almost fell out of my RV. I missed a four foot fall that would have probably broke my arm and possibly cracked a few ribs. I was the only one in the campground. It was Saturday night 10 pm with no moon. If I had fell out and broke my arm I might not have been able to drive an RV. When I joined up with a lady who wanted to travel with me she said she did not want to drive period. So she paid for the class C and we drove off to see how we liked it. I drove on the Interstate 70 about half way up the Eisenhower grade and I took an off ramp, stopped the RV, got out of the drivers seat and told her it was her turn. At first she said no so I said we will sit here until you drive it. You must learn how to operate the vehicle. She ended up really loving driving and did at least 50% of the driving on our trips. I simply did not give her an option. If we had an emergency and she had to drive because I was incapacitated.
 
We are about to embark on a cross country trip. While my DW has driven short distances, she has yet to develop the skills needed for more challenging routes. She would not consider driving while we are pulling our dinghy, but we won?t be pulling anything on this upcoming trip, so I expect that she will insist upon driving.

Fortunately, our rig is very stable against wind gusts and passing trucks. The brakes are adequate, but require far more distance than what my wife normally drives (a Nissan Cube). I know that she needs to be able to take over if I become sick. I know that many wives are the principal drivers and do this very well.

Her biggest problem is with road position, which is mostly due to a lack of experience with driving something 8? wide. I think I need to find an isolated road somewhere with lots of clearance for her to practice road position. She asked me to put tape on the middle of the windshield for a reference. No amount of arguing could convince her that this was the wrong place to put tape and perhaps the wrong way to judge road position.

Secondly, she has a poor sense of the envelope that our 37.5? rig occupies. This becomes especially exciting for me on narrow country roads with lots of encroaching trees.

Lastly, she doesn?t seem to understand the principles for the use of our grade brakes when descending a grade and chastises me when I am reaching down to turn this on. She seems to have no memory for where this switch is located.

Our rear facing monitor is ideal for knowing when you have passed someone and can safely pull in, but she is too quick to turn on the turn signal which turns off the rearward monitor and turns on the useless side view camera.

I wonder if an RV driving school would work for someone who is so reluctant to learn new driving habits.
 
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